


Truth & Revelations

by Marcus_S_Lazarus



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Goa'uld (Stargate), Harry Potter becomes Daniel Jackson, Written Pre-Deathly Hallows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:27:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 55
Words: 203,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23556799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marcus_S_Lazarus/pseuds/Marcus_S_Lazarus
Summary: When the SGC is infiltrated by a dangerous group with connections to Daniel's past, Daniel is forced to face several secrets that he has kept from his friends as he comes face-to-face with a life that he has been trying to forget since he lost everyone.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley (past), Samantha "Sam" Carter/Daniel Jackson
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27





	1. Setting the Stage

_**Eight Years Ago** _

In a small shop with an infamous reputation, in a street that had an even worse reputation than the shop did, a pale jar with a jackal-like design on its top stood on a shelf on the wall behind the desk. There was no price label or product description on or near the jar, but the design was unquestionably Ancient Egyptian, most likely one of the canopic jars that were once used to store the internal organs of pharaohs when they were buried.

This assessment of the jar’s nature, however, would not have been accurate. For one thing, this jar had never belonged to a pharaoh that the modern world as a whole would be aware of; it had been the possession of an Egyptian- albeit one with certain ‘talents’, who had attempted a _coup d’etat_ of the existing ruler of that part of Egypt. The attempt would have been successful, but the Egyptian had made the fatal mistake of going after a very _particular_ ruler… one who had access to certain abilities that even the Egyptian had _not_ been expecting.

As a result, the attempted coup of the area had been met with a more pyrrhic success for the man who started it, rather than anything more beneficial. The Egyptian in question had died in the coup while engaging in single combat with the ruler, but the ruler himself had been severely injured, to a point where not even his abilities would have been able to cure his body. As a result, the ruler had used his abilities to preserve what he could of himself in a trophy he had taken from his foe- the jar in question, now dwelling on a shelf in the shop in relative safety- and had subsequently given orders that the jar would be used to bring him back when the time was right.

Unfortunately for the former ruler, the right time for him to be woken up was destined never to come. Shortly after his ‘defeat’, there had been a mass uprising in Egypt, and the ruler’s people had been forced to flee the planet just to stay alive, albeit taking several servants away from their respective kingdoms to serve them. Relics such as the jar had been left on the planet, along with other, more valuable artefacts that would go on to play an important role in Earth.

After the departure of the ruler’s people, records of their activities on Earth had become few and far between, and the few people in the world who still _knew_ about them operated under a blanket of secrecy that prevented them from telling anyone else unless absolutely necessary.

But, right here and now, in this shop, all that was about to change, and soon one more person would be well aware of a truth so shocking that it had been concealed from the general population for almost five thousand years, even after the discovery of the most valuable artefact from that time.

As the shop suddenly became significantly darker than it had been mere moments ago, the jar began to glow a sickly green, as though it was responding to the presence of something else that had come into the room in the last few moments. The light, however, did not glow at a constant rate; it varied between rapid pulses of light, almost like a warning, to a slow, gradual light, as though it were a lighthouse lamp of some sort.

It almost seemed as though something about the jar was _reacting_ to something else in the shop, although what that something could be would have puzzled anyone who was watching these events unfold; nothing new seemed to have entered before the lights began.

Then, as the jar began to glow and flicker more rapidly, a faint ‘shadow’, for lack of a better means of describing it, could be observed, drifting ever closer to the jar. The ‘shadow’ might almost have been taken for smoke, were it not for the fact that it appeared to have glowing red eyes that stared at the jar in an almost _lustful_ manner, as though the jar was something it had wanted for a remarkably long time.

Then the ‘shadow’ seemed to reel back, as though it were a serpent preparing to attack a rat, and literally _dive_ into the jar. As it entered the jar, a brilliant flash of green light spread from the jar, filling the shop before it dissipated once more, leaving it the darkened room it had been before the jar began to glow.

For a few moments, there was nothing; the shop simply remained as it had been before th jar began to glow, with no sign of that situation changing at any point in the future.

Then the jar began to glow once more, this time emitting a deep red glow that seemed to almost be the colour of human blood. In many ways, the green glow that the jar had been emitting earlier would have been preferable. At least _then_ the shop had appeared to possess a certain ‘nature’ look about it, even if the green had been a colour that prompted mental images of poison rather than nature.

As the glow continued, becoming longer and more prominent as time went by, small cracks began to appear all over the jar, as though something inside the jar was straining to get out and once again return to the world. As the glow grew stronger and stronger, the cracks grew ever more prominent, until, finally, the jar cracked into several pieces from the strain that was being put on it, and a creature leapt from the jar’s remains to land on the floor of the shop, staring around at its surroundings with small, gleaming red eyes.

Physically, the creature didn’t look like it could pose much of a threat to anyone. It was essentially a long, thin serpent-like beast, a dark blue in colour. Small ‘fins’ around the ‘head’ suggested that it had originally evolved to be a water-dwelling creature, and the eyes that it possessed didn’t even appear to be that well-developed; if it had looked more like a land-based creature, one could have assumed that, like bats, it ‘saw’ using sonar.

However, several hundred miles distant, in the Cheyenne Mountain Complex of America, there existed several people who would instantly have identified this creature for what it was, and subsequently locked it away before it could do anything to hurt anyone in the surrounding area.

The creature was a Goa’uld symbiote- a creature that could merge with a human host. However, many would have called it a ‘parasite’ rather than a symbiote, since, in the majority of cases, only the Goa’uld itself gained any benefit from the joining, unlike a true symbiosis that would benefit _both_ parties.

Staring around itself, the Goa’uld seemed to come to a decision. Heading for the door, it dived through a crack between the door and the ground, reared its head up in the street as though listening for something, and then headed down towards a nearby building that still had a faint light on in one window. A few moments later, a loud scream was heard resounding down the street, but nobody else responded; if nothing else, screams in this street were nothing entirely uncommon.

In this case, however, there was more to the scream than a simple mistake.

This scream signalled the start of a chain of events that would lead to a final confrontation between two men, who had been destined to be foes long before one of them was even born.

It would take years for the final battle to come between the two foes, and in that time, much would change about them and their methods, as well as the talents and resources they possessed.

But they would still be foes.

The only question was whether the changes both had gone through would change the outcome of the battle between them…


	2. The Dream of Daniel Jackson

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For ‘Stargate: SG-1’, this story will be set mid-way through the ninth season, just after ‘Ripple Effect’ (Where multiple alternate SG-1s came through the Stargate due to interference in the Stargate system caused by a black hole), so the SG-1 team is currently commanded by Cameron Mitchell and Vala is absent. For ‘Harry Potter’, this is set several years after "Half-Blood Prince" and ignores the events of "Deathly Hallows", such as the revelation of Snape's true allegiances or the presence of the Hallows; since no _specific_ date for the events in the books was ever given (One date on a cake is hardly an accurate piece of information by which to date an entire series), assume that Harry left Hogwarts about a decade before the ‘Stargate’ movie and take the dating system from there

As he returned to his apartment complex that night, after what had to go down as an odd day even by the standards of the SG-1 team, Daniel Jackson wondered to himself when his life had reached the point where, when his job consisted of travelling to other planets through a massive stone circle constructed millennia ago, it took something like alternate universes to make a day qualify as _odd_.

He still couldn’t understand how things had changed so rapidly, and in such a short space of time, all those years ago. When he’d started his archaeology and language courses in college (After overcoming all the problems of applying for university positions despite his… _unusual_ … education), he’d only been expecting to achieve a certain level of interest from the general public, as well as maybe feel the thrill of the occasional archaeological dig in Egypt and other places.

Then, of course, he’d developed his theories about the pyramids, been shunned by most of the archaeological community, and ended up being contacted by the Stargate program to translate the symbols that would reactivate the ‘gate for that infamous first mission to Abydos and the battle against Ra. From there, it had been an unexpected marriage to a native of another planet, followed by a year on the same planet before he finally returned to Earth and ended up as the front line of defence against the forces of the Goa'uld, working with two members of the air force and the former leader of the army of the man who'd taken his wife...

_God_ , life could be _stupidly_ difficult sometimes.

How had things in his new life developed from a few archaeological theories into _this_ \- a world where he went to other planets on an almost daily basis, and where even just the _possibility_ of alternate realities seemed as casual to him as the idea of other countries was to the general population of the planet?

He’d gone to lengths that he’d never believed possible to make a more peaceful life for himself in archaeology and general academia- he still couldn’t believe some of his more elaborate methods to keep his secret had paid off- and here he was, in just as much trouble as he’d experienced _before_ he’d made the decision to use his less obvious talents to make his way in the world, once again risking life and limb on a regular basis for everyone else.

_Can’t_ something _go according to plan for once_? Daniel asked himself, as he opened the door to his apartment and stepped inside, shrugging off his shoes and jacket as he slumped down into a chair to think for a while. _I mean, it was hard enough setting up a life away from…_ all that _… and now here I am fighting off an alien invasion of Earth as part of an elite team that the public doesn’t even know_ exists _! This is_ not _what I had in mind!_

But even as those thoughts flashed through Daniel’s mind, he had to admit that, despite his mental protests, he genuinely _did_ enjoy his work in SG-1, even if he was constantly put in a position where he had to risk life and limb- indeed, even if he was the member of the team _most_ likely to end up dead while on a mission.

If nothing else, this time around, he was in a position to save the world because he’d _asked_ for it, rather than it just being forced on him according to something that had happened to him when he was too young to even fully understand what was going on.

He hadn’t been asked to join the original Stargate program because of his _name_ , but because of his talents as an Egyptologist; Catherine Langford had genuinely wanted him for what he _could_ no, not what she _thought_ he could do.

He’d _made_ a place for himself on the team, rather than having to step into a place that everyone _expected_ him to take because of something he hadn’t had any control over.

Any victories he’d achieved or friendships he’d formed had been formed because of who he was _personally_ , rather than just because people expected him to be capable of great feats due to his name.

And-

_No_ , Daniel thought, stopping that train of thought before it could start.

He couldn’t start thinking about _her_ again- even after all this time, the pain of her loss still hurt him terribly.

He would always remember her and the love they’d shared for that brief time, but he couldn’t start thinking about _her_ again.

That would only lead him back to thinking about Sha’re- another woman he’d loved and been unable to save- and, from there, it would only be a matter of time before he reached _another_ topic he really _didn’t_ want to have to deal with…

Sighing in frustration, Daniel removed his glasses, put them on the table beside his chair, and leaned forward, clasping his head in his hands.

It was at times like this- when he began to reflect on his past-that he couldn’t _believe_ how complicated his life had become in the last few years, apart from the obvious detail of the Stargate program itself. True, his life had hardly been a picnic back in the old days, but at least it had been less confusing, to say nothing of being more straightforward. At least back _then_ his foes had only had a certain amount of places to hide, and the two sides of the conflict had possessed equal resources rather than one of them being drastically ahead of the other.

These days, the people he was dealing with had an entire _galaxy_ to hide in, and commonly possessed resources that his side couldn’t equal on a long-term basis, no matter how hard they tried.

But there was another difference this time around, Daniel reminded himself.

The first time around, he’d been forced to fight on his own.

Oh, he’d had friends who were willing to help him, of course, but when it came down to the final battle, he’d always _known_ that it would come down to him and his foe, on their own, when it was all or nothing.

This time around, he _could_ ask for help. As with the Goa’uld (Of which there were admittedly still a few left) and the Replicators, there was nothing to say it had to come down to just _him_ and the Ori; the rest of Stargate Command in general, and SG-1 in particular, would always be there to help him when the final confrontation between the two sides became inevitable

OK, Daniel wouldn’t deny that, in the final confrontation, he’d helped stop the Replicators and Anubis for good, but he maintained that he’d only contributed to getting the foes in question into a position that would allow Carter and Oma Desala respectively to actually _finish_ them off. He’d helped but, in the end, it hadn’t _all_ been on his shoulders.

Sighing, Daniel stood up and walked over to his bedroom; he couldn’t afford to dwell on his past, not when the Ori were still a potential threat, to say nothing of the Goa’uld who might remain active out there. SG-1 was scheduled to make another reconnaissance mission of a new Stargate address tomorrow morning, and he should probably get a decent sleep before he was called in; he was no good to anybody tired. Shrugging out of his clothes, he climbed into bed and closed his eyes…

* * *

  
_And then he fell…_

_Alone._

_Every night, as the dream began, he would always fall, and he was always falling alone._

The way it will be… _a part of him thought to himself, the only part of him that he seemed to retain conscious control over in this state, although what the 'it' was his mind was referring to he could never work out._

_Then he hit the floor, already standing upright, and he was standing in the corridor that had become a more familiar sight to him now in his sleep than any other dream he’d ever had._

_As always, despite his best intentions, he found himself walking down the corridor towards the door at the other end, looking at the windows that covered the walls of the corridor as he walked past them._

_From the earliest loss of all- so early he could barely even_ remember _it- to the most recent- when Teal’c was forced to kill Sha’re- they were all here._

_In one window, he could only watch as his mother’s life was brutally cut short simply for trying to save his own…_

_In the next, a friend was cut down by his foe simply because of a suggestion he’d made landing them in a trap…_

_The third window, and his godfather was beginning the fall that would kill him, all because he had wanted to save him for being so_ stupid _as to walk into an elaborate deception set up by his enemy…_

_His mentor, murdered by a man he thought he could trust, only in such a position because of his desire to help his student…_

_His closest friend, cut down in a desperate attempt to recover the artefact that could spell the difference between victory or failure against their adversary…_

_And then_ they _came._

_The two that would always hurt the most, no matter what else took place in his life._

_The deaths of the women he had loved._

_The first one, lying where she had fallen after the fatal blow had been struck, her red hair spread out behind her, mixed with the blood from the head injury, as the traitor stood above her, laughing at him as he held his weapon in one hand…_

_And Sha’re, under the control of Amonet, being shot by Teal’c as the Goa’uld within her turned a ribbon device on him in an attempt to kill one of the team that had been a thorn in the side of her and her husband, Apophis, for so long…_

_Every night, as he woke up, he wished that he didn’t have to go through this dream._

_And every night, as he went to sleep, he knew that he would have it again._

_And he knew that, as he reached the door at the other end of the corridor, the final moments of the dream were coming._

_By this point, he knew that he would be desperately thrashing around in his bed, trying on some level to wake up even if he knew that he could do nothing but wait until the dream had finished._

_As he walked the last few feet towards the door, he vaguely caught a glimpse of other deaths- the destruction of Abydos by Anubis, the death of Jacob Carter- but neither of these fully grabbed his attention; unlike the others, he didn’t constantly blame himself for causing them. Jacob Carter had willingly chosen to give his life to trigger the weapon that would defeat the Replicators, and Anubis had chosen Abydos purely by chance; just because he had tried to stop the half-Ascended Goa’uld didn’t make it his fault that Anubis had attacked Abydos in the first place._

_They weren’t like the others; they would probably have taken place without his intervention._

_But those early deaths…_

No

_They_ were _his fault._

_Even if Sha’re had been taken as a host by chance more than anything else, a part of him still felt that Apophis had mainly chosen Sha’re out of some perverse sense of revenge on the people who had killed his brother; after all, surely even Goa’uld had to have a sense of_ family...

_As these thoughts flashed through his mind, his hand was already reaching for the handle of the door in front of him. Even as he was screaming inwardly at the thought of what he’d find on the other side, his hand had turned the door handle and opened the door before him…_

_And there they were, floating in the darkness before him, the darkness that seemed to suck in every other speck of light that entered it apart from these things…_

_Two narrow, blood-red eyes, glaring in his direction as he stared at them in rapidly-growing terror, terror that not even Anubis had managed to inspire in him…_

_They were the eyes of the man who had ruined his life._

_Then the word was whispered in his mind, the word that always marked the moment before he would wake up, the moment where he almost wished the dream would continue so that he could find out more…_

“Soon…”

* * *

  
As Daniel sat bolt upright in his bed, sweat already covering the sheets, he wasn’t surprised that his heart was still beating at an accelerated rate; even after a few months, the dream still had the same reaction on his as it had the first time.

He just wasn’t sure he’d _ever_ get used to what he saw in the windows of that terrible corridor…

Everyone he’d failed to save- everyone who’d cared about him and died because of it- were all visible in those windows in their final moments, and he was forced to watch as the last shreds of life fled their bodies, knowing that they were only dead because of their association with him.

_I left so I wouldn’t_ have _to remember, damnit_! Daniel berated whatever was causing him to have these dreams in the first place. _Can’t we just_ forget _about this and let me have a decent night's sleep? Hell, just focusing on Sha’re and Jacob would be an improvement right now_!

But despite his constant mental insistence that the dream was merely that- a dream- he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something more to it than that.

That, somewhere out there, something really _was_ coming from his past…

_No_ , Daniel told himself.

That part of his life was over. His foe was dead, the woman he’d loved was dead, and, as far as the majority of people from that time were concerned, _he_ was dead.

That was the end of the matter.

It _had_ to be...


	3. How to Infiltrate Stargate Command

Some miles away, at approximately the same time as Daniel Jackson’s subconscious seemed determined to plague him with images of his past failures to protect those he cared for, the Cheyenne Mountain Complex that housed the headquarters of Stargate Command appeared to be as peaceful as a billion-dollar facility could ever hope to be.

The usual soldiers stood on guard at the entrance, staring around themselves as they held their rifles ready in their hands in the event of an attack on the facility from Earth, while, deep inside the mountain, the normal technicians and scientists stood at their positions, monitoring the Stargate in the event of unauthorised use of the ‘gate from offworld, or if one of the several SG teams came back from their current mission of exploration or negotiation on another planet.

However, it was doubtful that either situation would arise at the present; SG-6, SG-13, and SG-21 were currently off-planet, but none of them were due to report back until noon the next day. Apart from that, their missions were simple diplomatic and archaeological missions; the chances of them running into any trouble and needing to come back earlier were so slim as to be impossible.

As for the possibility of alien attack via the Stargate itself, while it was undoubtedly a possible issue, it was nevertheless rather unlikely. Following the recent destruction of the Ori beachhead (The same event that had led to the reformation of SG-1), the current invaders seemed to have retreated for the present, and the few remaining active Goa’uld were unlikely to attempt something as foolish as an attack on the very planet that had ended the lives of so many System Lords.

Unfortunately, as the SGC were soon to learn, there were alternative means of breaching the facility’s defences that _didn’t_ involve those that they were aware of.

A few hundred metres down the tunnel leading into the base, just out of sight of the nearest guards and security cameras, there was a brief distortion in the air, and suddenly a small group of people, consisting of no more than maybe two dozen men and women were standing in the corridor, dressed in long black robes and wearing a skull-like mask under their hoods, their faces in shadow. A few of them carried variously-sized trunks, some apparently containing clothing and other personal possessions (Judging by the sleeves that almost seemed to be ‘spilling’ out of the lids), while a couple of the boxes were slightly smaller, and occasionally shook in a manner that had nothing to do with the people carrying them.

One man, already casually taking in his surroundings, stood slightly ahead of the others, and appeared to be the leader of the group; he wore no mask, although his face was still concealed by the robe he wore. The upper part of his face was totally overshadowed by the robe, although a pair of gleaming red eyes, with hints of gold in the irises, were visible underneath the hood of the robe.

The lower part of his face, however, was clearly visible even in the dim light of the tunnel, although what could be seen of it was hardly a normal human face; the lips appeared nonexistent, and his skin was remarkably pale, as though he had never been out in the sunlight. This idea of his lack of sunlight was reinforced by his hands, which had such long, thin fingers that they almost seemed to be the legs of a large spider, and were just as pale as what could be seen of his face. Together, his hands and eyes almost gave the man the appearance of a sun-starved corpse that had been somehow reanimated, although the man himself still appeared to be breathing regardless of how much he looked like a corpse that had decided to take a walk for some reason.

“We are here,” he said in a casual tone of voice, as though he had expected nothing less, turning to look back at his followers with a small smile on his face. As he spoke, his voice had an unusual tone about it; it seemed to possess a deep, almost metallic tone to it, and there was an almost echo-like sound to it, as though a _second_ person was talking through the man.

However, none of the other men appeared to be especially concerned by their leader’s unusual voice, and simply looked at him as though waiting for him to come to a decision. Only one man was an exception to the general rule of patience, and even he merely sighed slightly as he stared around the tunnel, his body language making it clear that he saw little point in any of them being here.

“My Lord, why did we have to apparate to _this_ point; we have barely gone any distance into the facility,” he asked, apparently glaring at his leader, although the mask made it hard to tell. “I believe you said that what we seek is in the lower levels of this construct-”

“And I have little idea as to how it would be affected by such a thing as apparition taking place in close proximity to it, and would prefer not to take the chance when it is not _absolutely_ necessary,” the leader said, turning to glare at the man who had spoken. “It is a remarkable piece of technology, but it is _technology_ nevertheless; magic may have a negative impact on it, and I would prefer _not_ to risk damaging the artefact before we have had a chance to implement my plan.”

The man simply stared back at him for a moment, and then nodded in an accepting manner.

“Of course, my lord,” he said, his tone respectful once more. “I apologise for doubting the wisdom of your plan.”

The leader wasn’t fooled, of course; he knew very well that the man still wasn’t entirely happy about having to follow him once again. After all, the only reason _this_ man was following him was for revenge for what his former student had done to his reputation.

After the final conflict, the man may have been forced to operate in secret, and under an alias, but he’d nevertheless made some kind of a life for himself following the war, and he was doubtless uncertain about giving it up for a mission that the leader had been remarkably unforthcoming about the purpose of.

Still, the leader of the group was hardly concerned about such a trivial matter as the present commitment of his subjects; it hardly mattered to him how many of them followed him all the way or simply part of the way.

Soon, he would have access to resources that none of his old foes and allies could have ever dreamed of…

And from there…He chuckled.

Even the group that controlled what he had come here for would have trouble trying to stop him after that, assuming they could even _find_ him in the first place after he’d used it…

It had taken him eight years to get this far- hampered by details such as sorting out his new memories and trying to regain what remained of his old army, to say _nothing_ of reacquiring his original abilities and appearance- but, at last, after the information acquired from some of his… ignorant and unsuspecting contacts, as he liked to think of the people who had told him about this project… he was ready to expand his power beyond anything he had possessed in the past.

Of course, it didn’t exactly hurt knowing that he was now _significantly_ harder to kill than he had been in the past, even without his original… security measures, for lack of a better term.

As he glanced around the tunnel, he gestured to his followers to be ready to strike, and the majority of them pulled out their weapons- those near the various trunks continued holding on to them instead-, staring around themselves for anything that may need to be shut down if they were going to get to their destination relatively undetected.

“Remember; stay silent, move carefully, and only _disrupt_ the security cameras; _don’t_ destroy them,” the leader said, glaring back critically at his followers. “If _anyone_ destroys something, these people may work out that someone was in here; simply _disrupt_ the cameras in the manner I have instructed, and it is unlikely anything will be noticed unless we give these people a reason to look closer.”

The group nodded briefly in understanding, and the leader grinned as he continued to advance deeper into the facility. He noted a camera up on one wall, but just smiled and launched a brief blast at it; the image the camera received would be stuck on a loop based on the scene a few seconds ago, with no visual record existing of him and his forces as they entered the base.

As he and his men progressed, the leader watched with approval as they calmly neutralised the various cameras as soon as they could be seen, simultaneously remaining as quite as possible while still actually moving towards their destination; evidently their skills had not fallen significantly in the two decades or so since he had last been active.

True, a few of them were slightly older than they had been in the past, but it wasn’t to a significant level; besides, with what he’d managed to acquire on Earth, he’d managed to make them a _bit_ more capable than they might have been otherwise…

After reaching the stairs to the lower levels, the group quickly ran down the stairs, one of them remaining at the front to ensure nobody could discover them. He had long had a talent for stealth, although his general cowardliness and ineptitude meant that there was little other reason to keep him around.

If it were not for his own small part in helping his leader obtain revenge on their nemesis, this particular follower would probably have been left to rot in the prison to which he and others had been sent after the last battle. As it was, however, he had proven his loyalty by depriving the leader’s foe on what had become the idiot’s reason for going on, even if none of them were aware of what had happened to his old adversary after the battle. According to all records the group’s leader had been able to find, his foe had simply dropped out of the public eye after (Apparently) defeating him for good, and nothing had been heard of him since that fateful day.

_The fool probably just killed himself from grief at her loss_ , the leader thought scathingly as they continued down towards the lower levels of the SGC. _He always_ was _too emotional; how he could have thought that something as pathetic as_ love _was the reason he survived my first attempt to eliminate him is something I shall_ never _understand_ …

Eventually, after descending through several flights of stairs, hiding on the other side of doors and in nearby rooms when soldiers nearly ran into them, the group had finally reached the level they were aiming for; the twenty-eighth floor.

The floor where Earth’s official- and, following its Antarctic counterpart’s destruction by the half-Ascended Goa’uld Anubis, _only_ \- Stargate was located.

As he stood at the door of the Embarkation Room and peered in via the window in the door, the leader smiled in glee as his eyes fell on the large ‘stone’ circle that stood in the centre of the room.

A quick glance into the room confirmed what he had gathered about the operation of the Stargate; at this time of night, in the current situation, the gate only had one technician monitoring it, although several soldiers were naturally on standby in nearby rooms in the event of the technician sounding an alarm, or an ‘unauthorized offworld activation’ taking place.

Glancing over at his followers, he nodded in confirmation, and all but one of the group, the leader included, pulled back from the door. The remaining man slowly crept into a door further down from the door to the Embarkation Room, taking care to close the door behind him as silently as possible, before he went silently up the stairs to the Stargate Control Room, also known as ‘the Dialling Room’.

* * *

  
Glancing through the small window in the door once to make sure he knew the target’s location, the man quickly yanked the door open and fired a quick ‘shot’, for lack of a better term, at the technician; the SGC employee instantly slumped back in his chair, unconscious but otherwise unhurt. The man would have preferred to simply kill the target, but his master had specified that, for the moment, there be no bodies; they wanted to give _nobody_ reason to suspect that someone had infiltrated the SGC until it was too late.

Turning to the Dialling Computer before him, the man studied the controls for a few moments, and then nodded to himself; everything they’d been able to learn about this device seemed to have been accurate. Based on the information his master had been able to acquire about the device before them (Mostly from the mind of the occasional off-duty SG team member, he recalled), the operating principles seemed fairly straightforward; all he had to do was enter the address his Lord had given him, and everything should be well.

Pulling out the piece of paper that his Lord had written the address on, the man turned back to the computer and began to dial up the necessary address- or ‘encoding the chevrons’, as the term seemed to be based on the information they’d gathered from their ‘interrogations’. As the first chevron was ‘encoded’, the door to the Embarkation Room opened and the others entered, many of them looking apprehensively at the Stargate as it began to spin.

All except for their Lord. He just stood in front of the ‘gate, at the bottom of the ramp, staring up at the structure before him, with a wide grin on his face, as he witnessed the culmination of nearly eight years’ worth of planning and rebuilding come to fruition before him. As the seventh chevron slid into place, the Stargate was briefly filled by what seemed to be a puddle of water before the sudden burst of energy from the centre, stopping just in front of the leader’s face before pulling back into the Stargate, creating a similar ‘water’ effect in the ring before them.

Despite themselves, the men couldn’t help but be impressed. They generally considered themselves to be above the use of technology, but what they saw before them would have put much of their own developments to shame simply by what it had _already_ achieved.

“If it is what our information tells us it is…” one of the men said, staring in awe at the Stargate before the leader glared harshly at him.

“ _It is_ ,” he said simply, before turning to look back at the man in the Dialling Room, who was looking inquiringly in the leader’s direction as he waited for his next order. “Wait until we have all gone though, then set the Stargate to shut down automatically around a minute after you input the command; that should allow you enough time to reach the _Chaapa'ai_ before it deactivates- and don’t forget to replenish their energy supplies; we don’t want to leave a noticeable power loss.”

“Reach the… the what?” the man said, looking in confusion at the leader; he had no idea what the _Chaapa'ai_ was. The leader paused for a moment, as though processing what he had just said, and then shook his head in apparent frustration at himself before looking back at the man in the Dialling Room.

“I mean the _Stargate_ , fools,” he said harshly, before turning back to face the ring in front of him. Before anyone could ask him why he had referred to the Stargate as something else only moments ago, he had walked up the ramp and gone through the Stargate, vanishing through the event horizon of the wormhole. Only the faintest, brief ripple on the Stargate showed any sign that the leader had been there at all in the first place.

The remaining men looked inquiringly at each other, as though trying to come to a decision, and then seemed to come to a decision. Grasping their weapons, as well as the assorted trunks, they walked up to the Stargate and stepped through the event horizon, leaving the man standing in the Dialling Room looking after them. For a moment, he was content to just look at the structure before him, smiling slightly at the thought of what, if the information was correct, awaited him and his fellows on the other side…

Then he shook his head and turned back to the computer. After a moment’s pause to go over the details in his head, he tapped in the keys that would trigger a delayed shutdown of the Stargate, positioned the technician back where he had been before he had been knocked out (The man should believe he’d simply closed his eyes for a few brief moments), and headed for the door to the Dialling Room as fast as he could.

He had just left the room and was heading down the corridor towards the door that would lead him into the Embarkation Room, when everything suddenly went wrong.

A voice spoke from behind him.

“Hey!” the person- apparently a male, based on the voice- called to him from further down the corridor. “What are you doing down here?”

The man groaned silently. They must have taken longer than they’d estimated; if everything had gone according to plan, there should have been at _least_ ten minutes between them reaching the Stargate and the next technician showing up to monitor the ‘gate.

He didn’t have the time to curse this new factor in the plans, however; he only had about thirty seconds to reach the Stargate before it shut down. As the man behind him began to run (Based on the rapid rate of feet hitting the floor), he started to run as well, heading towards the door to the Embarkation Room…

Then, in an accident that was embarrassing as much as it was anything else, the man tripped on his robe and fell to the floor.

_Damnit_! he thought to himself, cursing the robes that he and his fellows had always worn. He knew they created an intimidating impression in the minds of their adversaries- that was the main reason they even _wore_ the things, the masks in particular were rather warm and sweaty when they were active in the summer months- but they had _never_ been designed to allow for freedom of movement where rapid pace was a requirement. It had always been assumed that the simple _presence_ of their forces, coupled with their weapons, would be enough to deter the average person from attacking them, and the possibility of pursuit hadn’t been a factor either; they’d always been able to take their foe down at long range.

Desperately, he scrambled back onto his feet, already running towards the door to the Embarkation Room, but no sooner had he opened the door than the figure behind him struck him in the back, knocking him to the ground and pinning him down as his weapon slid from his hand, landing at least a metre out of reach.

“Now…” the other man (Apparently a technician for the project, based on his clothing) began, as he pinned the man’s wrists behind his back, before his voice trailed off. Looking up, the man saw that the technician had seen just what _none_ of his associates had wanted anyone in this base to see; the Stargate, still with a wormhole active and the seven chevrons encoded, making it clear that _something_ had been going on in here…

As the man watched in horror, the ‘gate shut down, the program he’d entered having finally kicked in, leaving him stranded in the headquarters of a military-controlled group, none of whom would be happy that he and his associates had broken in to use the most secret piece of technology on the planet…

_Shit_ , he thought to himself, as the technician hauled him roughly to his feet, his hands still forced behind his back as his captor called up to the Dialling Room to contact General Landry about an intruder in the Stargate.

If they didn’t work out what had happened from his presence, then it was a miracle that the Stargate actually _worked_.

He could only hope that his Lord managed to form the alliance he sought before these fools managed to track him down; alone, his associates might have been defeated, but together with the Goa’uld his Lord had mentioned…

The man grinned slightly as the technician forced him to walk towards the door.

_That_ would be a battle they would _not_ survive.


	4. The Past Always Comes Back to Haunt Us

As the sound of the phone ringing reached his ears, Daniel groaned slightly, instinctively reaching out to hit at his alarm clock before he remembered that he’d stopped using it as a wake-up call after the nightmares started. If nothing else, whenever he'd used it he'd always set it to a time when, upon waking up to it, he felt as though he still needed some sleep after the nightmare. Besides, nightmare or now,he often got up in time to get into the SGC anyway; he just had a little less time when he didn't use the alarm.

Rubbing his eyes slightly as he sat up in bed, Daniel reached over to pick up and put his glasses on before he walked over to where the phone was sitting, on a table near the window.

“Yes?” he asked, pushing his glasses slightly upwards as he rubbed his eyes with his fingers. “What is it?”

“ _Hey, Jackson_ ,” the voice of Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell, Daniel’s latest commander in SG-1, said, sounding slightly grimmer than Daniel remembered his new friend being in the past. “ _Sorry to bother you- I know you’d be coming in soon anyway- but I thought you should know sooner rather than later; our mission’s been cancelled_.”

“What?” Daniel said, his eyes widening slightly as he nearly dropped the telephone in shock. “But-”

“ _Yeah, I know it’s a shock, but trust me; Landry’s got a_ very _good reason for it_ ,” Mitchell explained, his voice sounding slightly lower, as though he didn’t want anyone to overhear him; if he was at SGC, then what he was talking about mustn’t have been announced to the entire base just yet. “ _Last night, someone- a_ group _of someones, based on what we’ve managed to find out over the last few hours- broke into the SGC and dialled an address on the Stargate; they went through, leaving the ‘gate to shut down automatically, and now… well, here we are._.”

“ _What_?” Daniel yelled, unable to contain his surprise; he’d never imagined that someone might be capable of doing _that_. Alien infiltration via the Stargate was one thing, but that someone could break into SGC to use the ‘gate for themselves from _this_ side…

“But… but how could they have _known_ about the Stargate?” he asked, hoping that at least his immediate questions could be answered. “And how could anyone even get into the facility in the first place?”

“ _You’ve got me there, Jackson_ ,” Mitchell replied apologetically, dashing any hopes Daniel might have entertained to a simpler solution. “ _We’ve already got a bunch of people- including Sam, of course- running over the people who might have the information and resources to pull this kind of stunt off without someone knowing about it beforehand, and so far the only people we’ve come up with are out of business, and wouldn’t have much reason to go through the ‘gate_ themselves _, if you know what I mean_.”

“Yeah, I do…” Daniel replied, nodding grimly to himself; even after nearly a year, the incident when the Stargate itself had been stolen by the Trust still left him feeling shaken. If Teal’c hadn’t shown up when he did, or if the Jaffa had kept his symbiote after that incident where he and Bra’tac had been forced to share one to stay alive…

Daniel shuddered slightly; the thought of Teal’c dying was bad enough, he’d really rather _not_ think about what could have happened if he’d been forced to watch the Trust shoot _Sam_ just before help showed up…

“So, if our original mission’s been cancelled, what are we doing instead?” he asked, turning his mind rapidly back to the present; after the dream, he did _not_ want to start thinking about Sam like that all over again. “Something to do with this infiltration of SGC, I’m guessing?”

“ _Yeah, we’ve got one of the guys who broke in held in our cells- seems like the guy set the Stargate to shut down after a certain time period and ended up getting caught by the beta shift ‘gate monitor before he could go through the ‘gate himself- so we’ve been trying to see if he’ll tell us anything about what he and his associates were planning_ ,” Mitchell explained. “ _If that doesn’t give us anything useful, SG-1’s going to be sent through the ‘gate to the address these suckers dialled; last address dialled remains stored in the computer, apparently- you can pull it up again if you take enough time to study the computer’s memory hard enough- and Landry figures that we’d be the best bet at getting back alive from wherever it is these cult loonies went to_.”

Daniel had to agree with that last comment; without meaning to sound arrogant, SG-1 _did_ have a good record of getting back alive from dangerous missions (OK, all four members of the team- six, if you counted Jonas and Jack into the bargain- ended up running into near-death situations at some point or another, often dying _literally_ for a few seconds, but the fact that they were all still here was a pretty good record). He was just about to hang up the phone when a thought occurred to him.

“Wait a minute… did you say that the people who broke in were ‘cult loonies’?” he asked, a slight edge of concern in his voice; he’d had enough problems with cults in his life without having any more to deal with. “What do you mean by that?”

“ _Oh, it’s just that the guy we’ve captured looks like he belongs to some kind of strange cult, so it seems a pretty good guess that the people who went through the ‘gate before we found him are dressed like that_ ,” Mitchell explained, chuckling slightly. “ _It’s a pretty dumb costume, really; a mask that looks like a skull and a long black robe. If you ask me, the man’s trying_ too _hard to be intimidating; he actually tripped over the robe while trying to get through the ‘gate, and the technician was able to pin him to the ground before he could get up to the ‘gate_ …”

Although Mitchell’s story as to _how_ the invader had been caught was indeed rather amusing, Daniel wasn’t really paying attention to _how_ they’d managed to take down the man who’d infiltrated the SGC. At the description of the costume the man had been wearing when he’d been caught, the archaeologist’s blood had almost instantly run cold, his brain frantically trying to come up with an explanation that _didn’t_ suggest the very thing that seemed to have been haunting his nightmares for the last few weeks.

If that man _wasn’t_ wearing a Death Eater’s outfit, his memory was worse than he’d thought, and, given that he had mastered around _twenty_ different languages by the time he was twenty and still knew them well, including a few that no longer existed, he didn’t think that a poor memory was going to be a likely explanation…

_But it_ can’t _be them!_ his mind protested. _They fell_ apart _after he died; there’s no_ way _they’d be able to agree on anything long enough to gather together again! And how could_ they _even_ know _about the Stargate; I haven’t even told my old_ friends _what I’m doing now, how could my_ enemies _have found out about it_!

“ _Uh… Jackson_?” Mitchell’s voice said, breaking through the archaeologist’s train of thought. “ _Is something wrong? You’ve suddenly gone pretty quiet_ …”

“Oh… sorry, Mitchell,” Daniel replied, trying to keep his mind on-track; if the description of the man’s costume was accurate, he and his teammates were likely to have some _serious_ trouble facing them when they want through the Stargate, and he had to remain focused if he was going to get them out of it. “Just… the outfit sounded like something I… well, I knew some people who dressed like that- they were definite ‘crackpots’, for lack of a better term- when I was younger.”

“ _Really_?” Mitchell said, sounding slightly surprised at the news. “ _What can you tell us about them_?”

“Let me get down there and I’ll let you know,” Daniel said, turning to his wardrobe and opening it, quickly grabbing his traditional SG-1 combat fatigues and tossing them onto his bed. “Make sure that Sam and Teal’c are there as well; I’d appreciate only having to tell them about this once. I don’t know that much about these guys- assuming they’re even the same people in the first place- but-”

“ _Trust me; right now, we’d be grateful for_ anything _you’ve got on these suckers, Jackson_ ,” Mitchell said, sounding significantly cheerier than he had been when the conversation started. Evidently, the prospect that they might actually have some _information_ about these guys was something Mitchell had been waiting to hear for a while now. “ _See you in the main conference room in about an hour, OK_?”

Daniel could only nod briefly as he terminated the call and pulled on his clothes. For once in his life, as he shrugged on the jacket, he was grateful for the long sleeves that were the standard issue for this kind of uniform. They may be slightly uncomfortable on some of the planets SG-1 visited- actually, most of them, now that he thought about it, they often made him feel uncomfortably warm- but, right now, these sleeves might help him be prepared for what might happen if he was right, without attracting too many questions if he was wrong.

Reaching over to a nearby drawer by his bed, Daniel pulled a small key out of his pocket, put it in the keyhole in the front of the drawer, and opened it. The drawer only contained a few items, none of which seemed like much, but had been locked away and treated with almost reverential care, as though they more valuable than the century-old artefacts Daniel studied on a regular basis. The contents consisted of an old scroll of parchment, a leather-bound photograph album, a tattered _Get Well Soon_ card, and a thin stick made of holly and about eleven inches long, all of these lying on top of a well-folded cloak made of some unidentifiable material that lay at the bottom of the drawer.

Picking up the stick, Daniel stared at it reflectively for a moment, lost in memories, before sliding it into his left sleeve, folding the end of the sleeve inwards to give the stick some ‘support’ while he was walking. So long as he was careful, it shouldn’t fall out of his sleeve or be too noticeable to anyone watching him, especially if he took care to keep his hand in his pocket and avoiding bending the arm much…

Staring at the drawer’s contents, Daniel briefly ran his hand over the card, a small, sad smile flashing across his face as he remembered the innocent girl who had given him the card after a near-fatal accident when he was thirteen, before he shut and locked the drawer once more.

He could remember his lost love later; right now, he had work to do.

And he could only hope that his theory would turn out to be wrong and he _wasn’t_ dealing with the one remaining reminder of his past that he _didn’t_ want to see again…

* * *

  
Fifty minutes later, Daniel was walking into the main SGC conference room, hardly surprised to find Mitchell, Sam, Teal’c and General Landry already all sitting in their chairs and looking expectantly at the door.“You’re late, Jackson,” Mitchell said teasingly.

“I said I’d be here in _one hour_ , Mitchell; I still have ten minutes before I could be called ‘late’,” Daniel retorted, smiling slightly at his commander as he indicated his watch before moving to the top of the table. “Before I tell you all anything about this group, I want to make it clear that my information on this group is limited, and it’s been a while since I heard anything about them; to be honest, I thought they’d shut down over two decades ago.”

“Whatever you can give us is fine, Doctor Jackson,” Landry replied, nodding reassuringly at the archaeologist. “Although I’d be curious to know _how_ you know about them.”

“I had a few close encounters with them when I was about seventeen; the son of one of the members of this group went to my school, and he tried to get me involved in the cult,” Daniel explained, crossing his fingers slightly in his pocket. Strictly speaking, his story _was_ true; the son of one of the group _had_ been at his school, it was just that he, _personally_ , had never tried to recruit Daniel. He hated having to lie to his friends about this, but he’d rather not give away something about his past that he’d tried so hard to put behind him unless he _knew_ there wasn’t another option but to tell them. “They were never an especially high-profile group, really- I don’t think the normal investigation groups even knew they existed at the time- but they were pretty ruthless when they wanted to be.”

“What can you tell us about the motivations this group possesses for their actions?” Teal’c asked, raising a curious eyebrow.

“Essentially, they called themselves ‘Death Eaters’,” Daniel explained, making sure to maintain a fairly fixed position at the top of the table; he didn’t want to get too close and have anyone notice how tense this discussion was making him. “Their leader was essentially a racist, but the reasoning under which he chose who wasn’t ‘pure’, and thus should be killed, was rather complicated- I’m not even sure how he selected his targets myself,” he explained, as he looked around at his friends, hoping they didn’t notice how he’d tensed up slightly while talking. Sam was looking at him with a slightly quizzical expression on her face, but otherwise nobody seemed to notice anything odd about his behaviour. “His followers were a bunch of like-minded people, commonly mounting brief, surgical attacks on anyone who didn’t fit in with their views of the world; they found a house they wanted to eliminate, went in there, killed everyone, and walked out again. Their leader was pretty terrifying to those who knew about him, but he was also pretty much the only reason any of his followers stayed in the group; he died about twenty years ago, and those of the group who were still alive either went to jail or ran away.”

“And you think we’re dealing with the leftovers of this group here?” Mitchell asked, looking curiously at Daniel.

“Essentially, yes; their outfits were pretty distinctive,” Daniel replied, nodding in the affirmative. “If it’s not them, I’d be very surprised.”

“So… any ideas what they’d want with the Stargate?” Sam asked, looking directly at Daniel. As always, Daniel felt the now-familiar pang in his heart as she looked at him, once again struck by how beautiful she was, and how much he just wanted to take her in his arms and kiss here, even as he knew that she could never look at him the same way he looked at her…

“No,” he replied, forcing his mind back on-target; he could fantasise in his free time, _not_ when preparing for a mission. “I don’t even know how they’d manage to work together long enough to plan and mount this kind of thing anyway. As I said, their leader died several years ago, and I doubt that any of the others could have the necessary… presence… to bring them back together; convincing them to do something like this couldn’t have been easy.”

He sighed slightly as he looked apologetically at Mitchell and Landry. “Sorry I can’t give you anything else.”

“Hey, no swear; right now, _anything’s_ good news as far as I’m concerned,” Mitchell replied, smiling reassuringly at Daniel before glancing back at General Landry. “Anyway, we any further in getting the address these guys dialled?”

Landry nodded. “I just got off the phone with the Gate Control Room; they’re only a chevron away from working out which address was dialled,” he explained, as he looked around at the SG-1 members. “I should make it clear that what we’ve got of the address makes it clear that this isn’t somewhere you’ve visited before; we’ve got no idea what could be on the other side of it, and I’m certainly _not_ sending you through before we know for sure that there’s a DHD. I know these people already went through it, but we have no way of knowing if they were ever intending to come back or simply wanted to start over somewhere else.”

Daniel could only nod slightly at that statement. He _knew_ that the Death Eaters wouldn’t go to all this effort just to get a new start- they’d all gone to a great deal of effort to escape the Ministry here on Earth, and anyone who’d succeeded so far wasn’t likely to be afraid of failure- but, with a lack of ideas to what they’d _want_ with a Stargate, he’d just have to stay quiet and hope they could find out what was going on before the situation got much worse.

* * *

  
A few minutes later, the SG-1 team were standing in front of the Stargate, all of them as ready for a potential combat situation as they could be. Mitchell was holding his now-typical carbine Heckler & Goch G36 , Sam and Teal’c were carrying their FN P90s, and Daniel’s hand was hovering over his Beretta pistol, which was in its holster on his belt; as always, the archaeologist wasn’t entirely sure about going into a Stargate with a gun in his hand when he wasn’t entirely sure what might be on the other side.

“So, what did the MALP have to show us?” Mitchell asked, glancing over at Sam as the four of them prepared to enter the Stargate, the ‘gate already revolving as the Dialling Room encoded the necessary chevrons.

“Not much, unfortunately,” Sam replied, glancing over at her new commander. “Daniel thinks he saw some hieroglyphs that referred to ‘fire’ a great deal, but we don’t have any idea what they have to do with why this particular address was dialled.”

“Well, actually, they weren’t hieroglyphs; that’s a strictly Egyptian term,” Daniel put in, looking over at Sam and Mitchell as he spoke. “They were written in the Greek alphabet, or at least some variation of it; I think I noticed some reference to Hestia as well.”

“Hestia?” Mitchell asked, as the seventh chevron finally engaged, the unstable vortex energy being expelled before them as he turned to look at Daniel. “Wasn’t she one of the ones that was eaten by Chronos?”

“Yes, she was the first-born of the Greek Gods,” Daniel replied, nodding briefly at Mitchell as the Stargate stabilised. “However, paradoxically she was also the youngest, as she was the last one to be expelled from Chronos when Zeus forced his father to expel his devoured siblings. She gave up her position among the Twelve Olympians to Demeter to allow her to focus on tending the sacred fire of Mount Olypmus, and is generally known as the Goddess of the hearth in mythology.”

“Ah,” Mitchell said, nodding in understanding as he turned to look at the active ‘gate before him. “So… what do you think we’ve got on the other side?”

“Who knows?” Daniel shrugged, wishing he had more to offer. “I can’t begin to guess what the Death Eaters would want with a world like that one. If it was more advanced than Earth, I could probably understand why they went there, but it looks like it hasn’t advanced much beyond maybe a Middle-Age level of society at best.”

“In that case, we should endeavour to defeat this cult as soon as possible,” Teal’c put in, looking over at Mitchell critically. “If they are as dangerous as Daniel Jackson says they are, it seems almost certain that they will not treat the local population well; we should move as quickly as possible before they have a chance to do anything serious.”

“Agreed,” Mitchell said, as he looked around at the rest of the SG-1 team once more before walking up to the Stargate, vanishing through the event horizon, followed closely by the other three…

* * *

  
And, light-years away, at the other end of the wormhole, inside a largemarble templewhere two elaborate thrones dominated the surroundings, a man in a long dark robe with pale hands and face, sitting in the less elaborate throne, looked up slightly, as though sensing something that he hadn’t been aware of before.

On the throne next to him- a throne that, if possible, was even more elaborately-designed than his own- a tall, elegant woman with long red hair and an impressive… figure, for lack of a better term… looked curiously at the man.

“What?” she asked, in the same deep, metallic tone with a hint of duality that the man beside her had spoken in when he had entered the SGC facility. “Is something wrong?”

“Far from it, my good Hestia,” the man replied, looking over at the woman with a small grin visible on his face. “It would appear that an old… _friend_ … of mine has decided to come to our planet…”


	5. The Nightmare Reborn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With discoveries made in this chapter, I would like to re-stress the point that this was written _before_ " _Deathly Hallows_ " was released, so revelations about allegiances and who died in that book don't apply

As he stepped out of the Stargate, only partly registering the sound of the wormhole shutting down behind him, Daniel glanced around at where the ‘gate was located, and was relieved to see that nothing had changed since the MALP was sent through; there was still no sign of any Death Eaters standing around, waiting to kill whatever ‘filthy muggle-borns’ decided to follow them to their new home/headquarters/whatever they wanted this new planet to be. They probably suspected that _somebody_ would come through- they couldn’t have failed to notice a missing man, given that they’d probably be short on people anyway- but, so long as they weren’t ready _yet_ , he and SG-1 still had time to reconnoitre.

In general, the architecture of the planet looked almost like ancient Greek constructs; tall, thick pillars were visible through the door down at one end of the room they were now standing in, which appeared to be inside a replica of an ancient Greek temple constructed to honour a God. The only difference was that the Stargate was located at one end of the temple, in the place where a temple on Earth would have had a statue of the god that the temple was dedicated to.

Fortunately, the only sign of any other construct in the temple was the DHD; there was no sign of a sacrificial altar anywhere in the temple. After a quick glance confirmed the lack of an altar, Daniel breathed a brief sigh of relief; he’d rather _not_ have to deal with a culture that practiced the art of sacrifice to the Stargate. Having people think that the Ori and the Goa’uld were gods was hard enough; he’d really _not_ have to deal with a culture that thought the _Stargates_ were gods…

As the other members of SG-1 split up slightly to examine the rest of the temple (The images taken from the MALP could only give the SG teams so much information about what was on the other side of the Stargate, after all), Daniel stayed near the Stargate, glancing briefly over the DHD as his thoughts turned over the problem that he and his friends may have to deal with on this mission.

Specifically, the possibility of an active Death Eater presence on this planet, _years_ after the group was meant to have collapsed with the death of their leader, and the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at least several light-years away from their current location…

As much as he was regarded by the rest of the team as SG-1’s man of peace- more likely to talk his way out of trouble than shoot his way out, and generally trying to find a means of resolving the problem that _didn’t_ feature people ending up dead- a part of Daniel hoped the Death Eaters would already have killed each other while trying to come to an agreement about which of them would be in charge now that their original leader was gone.

If nothing else, it might save him having to tell his friends information about his past that he _really_ wasn’t sure he wanted them to know…

“Daniel?” Sam called out from off to one side. “Could you come over here for a minute?”

Bringing his mind back to focus on the present, Daniel walked over to where Sam was standing. As he approached her location, he noticed that she was examining one of the wall carvings they’d seen on the MALP; a quick glance over them, even in the dim illumination caused by the planet’s sun through the temple windows, confirmed his earlier theory that they were written in Ancient Greek.

“Is there anything helpful?” Sam asked, as Daniel pulled out his penlight- he didn’t need much illumination to study this- and examined the carvings more closely.

“Maybe…” he said, nodding thoughtfully as he studied the writing before him. Ancient Greek wasn’t one of his stronger languages- the Goa’uld they’d encountered in the past tended to use variations of Ancient Egyptian if they used any Earth language, so he was a bit out of practice with Greek- but he was pretty sure he could get the essential details accurate in a translation. “It looks like my earlier translations about Hestia were accurate; these carvings talk about her a great deal.”

Reaching a few lines near the bottom of the carving, his eyes widened slightly as he realised what was written there. “Oh boy…”

“What?” Mitchell put in; he and Teal’c had noticed Sam and Daniel congregating in one area of the temple and had walked over to investigate. “Something wrong?”

“You could say that…” Daniel replied, continuing to study the writing with his torch as he crouched down to read the writing at the bottom better. “I can’t be sure, but I _think_ that, if I’m translating this thing accurately, then this planet was populated by a bunch of people who were snatched from ancient Athens…”

He looked up at his friends as he finished speaking, the better to make sure they got the point he was about to make. “And were apparently taken to this planet by a Goa’uld, who remains in charge to this day.”

Mitchell’s eyes widened slightly at that, although Daniel wasn’t sure whether it was in shock or anticipation. After all, Mitchell _was_ rather inexperienced in dealing with the Goa’uld- a few encounters with the Jaffa and those incidents with Ba’al and Anubis’ clones did not make him an expert in tackling SGC’s former main adversaries- so he could have been either _eager_ to finally directly face the adversary that had forged SG-1, or _afraid_ at the prospect of facing them.

“The Goa’uld in question being Hestia?” Sam asked, looking inquiringly at Daniel. “Are you sure?”

“As sure as I can be, given that some of the relevant writing’s worn away over the years,” Daniel nodded, as he turned back to the writing. “Although this Goa’uld seems to be a bit more vicious than the Hestia of Greek myth; Hestia herself was pretty peaceful, content with just tending the fire of Olympus- she gave up her place in the Pantheon to Demeter to devote more time to that task- but something’s mentioned here about the ‘Fountains of Vengeance’, and I think there’s reference towards the end to fire- the writing’s eroded over the years…”

“So… what does that mean?” Mitchell asked, looking inquiringly at Daniel, his gun already slightly raised; he was evidently already anticipating a need to use the weapon if the worst happened and they were attacked. “Does this Hestia punish the people here by using flamethrowers or something like that?”

“Probably…” Daniel nodded, as he glanced over the carvings once more, frowning slightly as he looked at them. “There’s not much about her other abilities, though; she’s definitely got at least _some_ Jaffa available to her, but I think, based on the information here, that she’s relatively minor by the standards of most of the Goa’uld we’ve encountered over the years. They don’t even make reference to her controlling anything other than _this_ planet, so she’s certainly _not_ a System Lord…”

Mitchell frowned in confusion as he studied the temple around them, mulling over Daniel’s translation in his head.

“This doesn’t make sense…” he said, almost half to himself, as Daniel stood up and turned his penlight off. “Of all the possible Stargate addresses you could dial- and just _knowing_ about the Stargate suggests they might have a few options as to what planet they’d want to go to- why would someone chose to come to a world controlled by a Goa’uld who’s _just_ in charge of this planet? If these ‘Death Eaters’ are as ruthless as they sounded, _and_ they knew about the Stargate, wouldn’t they want to go somewhere where they’d have a better chance of finding a Goa’uld with something that they could use to do some _serious_ damage back home?”

“It is equally possible that the Death Eaters chose to come to this planet _because_ it is ruled by a Goa’uld who lacks the resources of the System Lords,” Teal’c put in. “If they are as arrogant as Daniel Jackson described them, they may wish to form an alliance with a Goa’uld to aid in their ‘work’ back on Earth, and, having acquired information about the Goa’uld from an unknown source, they selected Hestia as a possibility for such an alliance because they believe that she, like them, will perceive the possibility of them gaining something from such a joining of forces.”

Mitchell nodded thoughtfully at Teal’c’s words. “Yeah, I get what you’re saying… since Hestia’s not that big at the _moment_ , she’d probably be more willing to listen to somebody who wants to work with her than a Goa’uld who’s got a lot going for them already?”

“Precisely, Colonel Mitchell,” Teal’c responded, nodding briefly in confirmation at his new commander’s assessment of the situation.

“But what could a racist Earth cult have that they think Hestia would be interested in?” Sam asked, looking over at Daniel, an inquiring expression on her face. “Was there anything about the Death Eaters back when you knew them that might have attracted or be of interest to a Goa’uld?”

“Well…” Daniel began, trying to buy time to make a decision about how best to answer the question. He knew that there _was_ something the Death Eaters had to offer that might interest a Goa’uld in Hestia’s limited position- the ability to do _magic_ was probably _not_ something the average Goa’uld had available to them- but if he told them _that_ , he’d have to tell them about his _own_ abilities, and he still wasn’t ready to do that…

With Daniel facing a more-than-minor personal dilemma, it was probably a good thing that someone chose that moment to fire an energy weapon- apparently a staff weapon- into the temple, narrowly missing both Mitchell and the DHD before it struck the wall behind the Stargate; if nothing else, it took attention away from him for the moment.

“Jaffa!” Mitchell yelled, as SG-1 quickly dived to the ground, rolling over to the wall to avoid the immediate fire. A quick glance at the door of the temple revealed that there were two Jaffa standing at the entrance holding staff weapons; they were most likely a regular guard to the Stargate, although why they’d taken so long to respond to the ‘gate being activated was more than a bit confusing.

As they crouched up against the nearest wall, Mitchell swallowed anxiously as he glanced over at Teal’c. “What’s your recommendation for dealing with these guys?” he asked the former First Prime of Apophis. “Do we shoot to kill, or just shoot to wound?”

Teal’c shook his head. “Given the current status of the Goa’uld among the Jaffa in general, the only Jaffa remaining loyal to the Goa’uld are those who have little to no idea about the recent deaths of the likes of Anubis and Osiris,” he explained. “With this in mind, unless we can actually injure Hestia herself- as we presume this Goa’uld to be- it is unlikely that these Jaffa regard the Goa’uld as anything other than the gods we were raised to regard them as. However, I would recommend that we merely disable these Jaffa for the present and then see what we can discover about Hestia’s command over this world; it would not be wise to kill Jaffa who may prove to be our allies if we can work out a means of revealing the truth.”

“Right,” Mitchell nodded, as he raised his gun and, having checked the ammunition available, nodded resolutely. “OK, Sam, on my command, you and I both roll over to the other side of this place while firing wildly at the door; Jackson, Teal’c, the two of you see what you can do about getting down to the door and taking them by surprise while they’re working on their next move.”

Nodding in agreement, Daniel pulled out his Beretta and, after a quick glance at Teal’c, the two of them began to slowly edge their way down towards the wall of the corridor, out of the Jaffa’s line of vision, leaving Sam and Mitchell to ready their weapons. As Daniel (Who was in front of Teal’c) reached the halfway mark between where they’d started and the door of the temple, Mitchell yelled out “NOW!” and dived forward, rolling on the ground as he fired his weapon rapidly towards the door. As Sam followed close behind him, her gun firing just as rapidly, the energy burst from two staff weapons launched in her direction, leaving Daniel and Teal’c to run as fast as they could towards the end of the temple.

A quick glance back revealed that Mitchell and Sam were still all right, and the blasts hadn’t done anything more serious than grazing the Stargate, which, naturally, had done nothing to the ‘gate. Daniel also noted, with a small smile, that the blast in question had struck the Stargate somewhere between the top and upper right chevrons, suggesting that the Jaffa in question had just been firing blindly from around a corner rather than actually looking at what was happening. As the two of them reached the corner of the temple wall and began to edge their way towards the door, Daniel quickly glanced at Teal’c.

“I’ll take the one on the opposite side of the door; you handle the one on this side,” he whispered.

“Agreed,” Teal’c nodded, as they finally reached the door. Daniel paused for a moment to determine whether their estimates as to the number of Jaffa were accurate- it seemed that they were; he could only hear two figures on the other side of the wall- and then nodded an affirmative at Teal’c. Instantly the two men leapt out from behind the wall, Daniel springing towards the Jaffa on the opposite side of the door while Teal’c struck out at the one on the other side of the wall they’d just come from. Thanks to Daniel’s advantage of surprise, coupled with Teal’c’s own personal strength, the two attacking Jaffa were soon lying unconscious on the ground, one with a bullet-wound to the right side of the head and the other stunned by several rapid punches launched by Teal’c.

“We’ve got them!” Daniel yelled back at Mitchell and Sam, before glancing back at Teal’c. “What now; do we just leave them where they are?”

Teal’c nodded. “It is likely that the Death Eaters that you told us about were already expecting someone to come after them via the Stargate; once they realised that the last man was missing, they would realise that we would soon follow them. Since they most likely already know we are coming, it only makes sense that we attempt to make as much time as we can before they conclusively realise that we are here; taking time to hide them serves no purpose.”

“Yeah, fair enough,” Daniel agreed, as he glanced back into the temple where Sam and Mitchell were looking anxiously in his direction. “They’re down; let’s get moving.”

“I’m right behind you on that one, Jackson,” Mitchell said, nodding grimly at the archaeologist as he and Sam joined their teammates at the door of the temple. “So, which of these temples is Hestia most likely to be in?” he asked, glancing inquiringly at Daniel.

As Daniel turned to look at their surroundings properly for the first time- he’d been too busy taking down the Jaffa to look when he’d first left the temple- he noted that the planet they were on now did indeed look remarkably like ancient Greece.

The buildings that they could see were all temples constructed in the classic Greek style- white marble with large pillars surrounding the front door. Each temple had a statue outside it that appeared to be connected with fire in some regard or another- a statue of a volcano appeared to be outside one temple, and another had what looked like a blacksmith’s forge in front of it, but otherwise, apart from a few temples being on hilltops, they all appeared to be pretty much the same as each other.

As Daniel continued to study the scene before him, however, he noticed that one temple clearly stood out from the others; if nothing else, it was the only temple there that had a _human_ statue in front of it, rather than a statue of an artefact of some kind. True, the statue appeared to be standing in something that could be a fire, but that only added to Daniel’s certainty that it was the temple they sought.

“There,” he said, indicating the temple in question. “From here, I’d estimate that’s the one we’re looking for.”

“OK,” Mitchell said, nodding in understanding as he looked around at his team once more. “Let’s go; we’ve got a deranged cult to track down and a Goa’uld to expose as a very _false_ god.”

* * *

  
At that moment, inside the temple, the leader of the ‘deranged cult’ in question was looking at a select group of his various followers, consisting of only six men, staring harshly at them as though he wished to make sure that they understood what he was telling them.“Is everyone clear on my orders?” he asked, looking particularly closely at one of the men; a small man with very little hair, the few hairs that remained being colourless, and a pointed nose and watery eyes. Despite the man’s rather pitiful appearance, his silver right hand, coupled with the manner in which he held himself, made it clear to all that he was in a position of some authority in this group, and was evidently keenly aware of this fact. “Aim to wound or stun your opponents only; they must all remain alive until I have had the chance to plan a suitable revenge against our… friend.”

“Yes, My Lord,” the man with the silver hand said, nodding briefly at the leader before a curious expression crossed his face. “But, my Lord, _why_ must I remain at the back? Surely I would be best-suited at the front, to shock our foe into making a mistake-”

“He and his allies must have some small ‘victories’ first; otherwise, the ‘mistake’ he makes upon seeing you here will be of little consequence to them,” the leader replied, glaring critically at the man with the silver hand under his mask, his red eyes flashing slightly in contempt as he stared at his servant. “You shall have your chance to attack him; all you must remember is that you must _not_ allow him to actually _kill_ any of you yet. When we have managed to establish a greater presence, then you may do as you will, but at present, I require you all to avoid serious injury; there are too few of you at present.”

The group nodded once in confirmation and then turned to leave the main chamber of the temple, leaving their leader to sit in his new throne and smile slightly, prompting a curious glance from the room’s remaining inhabitant.

“Why do you toy with your foe?” the woman sitting in the other throne asked, critically glaring over at the man in black sitting beside her as though she thought he was making a mistake. “Why not simply kill him?”

“Because, my dear,” the man replied, as he grinned over at the figure sitting on the throne next to his own, “if he just dies straight away, then I would not have the pleasure of forcing _him_ to endure something akin to what _he_ put _me_ through back when he and I had our first encounter.”

Clenching his fist, the man growled low in his throat. “No… he _must_ suffer for what he did to me…”

* * *

  
As they advanced towards the temple at as fast a pace as they could go, Daniel was already going over possible strategies for dealing with whatever they might find waiting for them. Jaffa were pretty straightforward- they _all_ knew how to deal with them- but going up against Death Eaters armed only with a few guns was _not_ a position he’d ever faced in the past, and he was desperately wishing he didn’t have to face it now…Still, so far everything seemed to be going well. The hill with the temple they were aiming for had only been a few minutes away from them, and they were already near the top. Soon the temple would be in range, and then…

Someone yelled “ _Reducto_!” from above, and Daniel’s eyes widened in horror.

“ _Get DOWN_!” he yelled over at his friends as he dropped towards the ground, Mitchell, Sam and Teal’c following him. A quick glance upwards revealed a beam of energy flying past the area where Teal’c had been standing earlier- it would probably have hit the Jaffa in the arm if he’d still been standing- but a glance to the top of the hill revealed a significant absence of anyone who could have cast the… the _spell_.

Daniel swallowed anxiously.

It was just as he’d feared; the outfits _weren’t_ just a coincidence.

They really _were_ up against Death Eaters…

“ _Scatter_!” Mitchell yelled, raising his G36 so it was ready for action. “Stay low, keep an eye out for a target, and _move_!”

Daniel had to admit, the plan certainly _seemed_ good. If nothing else, few Death Eaters in his experience had been all that good at non-verbal magic, and even for those who were, he was fairly confident that SG-1 could avoid some magic attacks if they’d so far managed to stay away from Jaffa staff weapons and similar blasts on past missions.

As the four of them dived off in various directions, a quick glance over at his friends confirmed to Daniel that they were all ready to hold their; Mitchell was already laying down covering fire to give Sam and Teal’c a better chance to get a bit of distance between them and the hill top.

Pulling his Beretta out of its holster, Daniel quickly checked it for bullets and then, sensing someone above him, raised the gun and fired a couple of quick shots. He vaguely registered his target clutching his shoulder in pain, but didn’t have the time to fully process what he’d hit; if he stayed in one place for too long, he made himself too easy a target. Glancing back, he saw that Sam and Teal’c had also managed to get in a few good shots at their opponents; he was fairly sure that he could see one Death Eater clutching a badly wounded arm at the top of the hill.

So far, it was looking like his earlier concerns about the Death Eaters were proving invalid; indeed, it almost seemed as though SG-1’s guns were giving them the _advantage_ over their opponents, rather than proving less efficient than the Death Eater’s weapons. If nothing else, even non-verbally it took a little time for the Death Eaters to decide what to do, but SG-1 just had to point and fire without thinking any further about what they were dealing with. Glancing up, Daniel smiled as he saw a particularly ugly Death Eater (A part of him thought it might have been Goyle, but he didn’t care; _that_ sucker had been so thick it was doing him credit to say he was ever a danger on his own) fall to the ground, apparently from a bullet from Sam’s gun…

Then a glint of silver came from the hand of a Death Eater who was looking in his direction, almost directly above him, and Daniel’s blood ran cold with rage.

It was _him_ …

The man who had betrayed his parents, been given a second chance, and then thrown that chance in Daniel’s face by murdering the woman he loved.

“Hello there, old friend!” the man called down to Daniel, sounding almost like he was chuckling; evidently his self-confidence had improved over two decades. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Tell me, when _did_ we last see each other?”

Daniel snapped.

“You _fucking_ son of a _BITCH_!” he roared, forgetting all about being careful and charging up the hill at a rapid rate, swiftly reaching the man. Grabbing the man by the robe, Daniel hauled him off his feet with an expression of pure rage- the kind he hadn’t even felt when facing Apophis- and punched the man in the face, hard.

“Well…” the man grinned as he looked bat Daniel’s face, twisted in hatred as he glared at the hand held up by his right hand. “ _That_ was… unexpected.”

“ _You KILLED her, you piece of SHIT_!” Daniel roared in his foe’s face; he knew he could normally come up with something more elaborate than basic swear words, but right now, he was just angry. “ _What did you EXPECT; I’d just say ‘Hi’ and leave it at that?_!”

“No,” the man replied, grinning slightly as his eyes flicked to look at something behind Daniel. “But I _would_ have thought you’d remember that you’re not fighting alone any more.”

Daniel’s eyes widened slightly in fear at that comment. Making sure his opponent was presently unarmed, he quickly glanced behind him, and saw, to his horror, that Mitchell, Sam and Teal’c were all lying on the ground, apparently temporarily paralysed- Impediment Jinx, Daniel was prepared to bet; the initial Reducto probably hadn’t been _meant_ to hit anyone that badly- but the net result was that they were all, for the moment, out of action.

Daniel swore under his breath; he’d been so enraged by the sight of this… _rat_ … that he’d forgotten that the rest of SG-1 were still there. When he’d yelled out like that earlier, he must have distracted them from the immediate struggle, and the Death Eaters had immobilised them before they could get their attention back on the more immediate matter.

_Shit_ , Daniel thought to himself- once again, nothing better was immediately springing to mind- as he glared at the man he held in one hand.

“Let me guess,” he said dryly, “I give myself up, or we _all_ die?”

“Naturally,” the man replied, grinning slightly. “So, what’s it going to be?”

For a moment, Daniel was tempted just to make an attempt at a last stand, maybe taking at least _some_ of the Death Eaters down with him…

But he saw Sam staring up at him, fear and confusion in her eyes, and he couldn’t do it.

He couldn’t see _her_ die…

Glaring at the man in his right hand, he lowered his opponent to the ground. Smiling broadly, the man clapped his hands together (The silver hand making a slight ‘clank’ sound as it hit the flesh hand), and, a few minutes later, all four members of SG-1 were standing, three Death Eaters surrounding each team member and glaring at them as though waiting for the Air Force Colonels, the ex-First Prime and the archaeologist to give them a reason to attack; the jinx had apparently been ended after Daniel surrendered, although their weapons had all been taken away. Daniel briefly noticed Sam looking at him in a confused manner- she was evidently wondering why he’d reacted so violently upon seeing the man he’d attacked- but she was staying quiet for the moment.

The man who Daniel had attacked- he seemed to be the leader of the group- jerked his thumb towards the door of the temple behind him, and the Death Eaters instantly began to force SG-1 towards the temple, two Death Eaters holding their arms while a third stood behind them in case of an escape attempt. As they were forced through the door of the temple, Daniel glanced into the room, and his gaze instantly fell on a woman sitting in a large, ornately decorated throne, directly opposite the main door of the temple.

The woman sitting in the throne in question, who Daniel presumed to be Hestia, certainly looked the part of a fire goddess. She was dressed in a long gown, much like the one Hathor had once worn before she had been thrown into the liquid nitrogen, but this gown covered her shoulders and arms as well. Then again, the difference in attire was hardly surprising; as Hathor had been posing as the goddess of _love_ , it was only natural that she would have attempted to present a more sex-based image to the world, and bare shoulders would certainly have aroused the attention of the Egyptians in the past. The gown was a deep orange in colour, and her hair was a rich, deep red, much like…

Daniel stopped himself from going too far with that train of thought; Hestia _wasn’t_ … her… and that was all he needed to worry about right now.

Still, it could be worse…

Then Daniel saw the man sitting on the throne beside Hestia (Less elaborate than hers; it seemed to have been newly installed, a part of his mind noted), and his eyes nearly fell out of his head in shock.

He suddenly had a great deal _more_ to worry about than just his past coming out.

This man, like the Death Eaters who were standing around alongside the Jaffa, was dressed in a long black cloak with a large hood that was evidently intended to cover the head. However, unlike most of the Death Eater’s the man’s hood was pulled back, exposing skin so pale it seemed as though the man had never been exposed to the sunlight, a hairless head with a nose like a serpent’s, and red eyes that gleamed with a hint of a gold.

The clues all added up to one fact; this man had a Goa’uld inside him.

But that wasn’t the worst part.

It wasn’t even the fact that Daniel _knew_ the host; he’d already been through that experience of facing a Goa’uld in a body he’d known previously with Amonet and Osiris, when they’d stolen the bodies of Sha’re and Sarah respectively.

No, the _worst_ part was that the host was supposed to have been dead for almost two decades, and it was the one face from that time that Daniel _didn’t_ want to see again…

“No…” Daniel whispered, staring at the man before him in horror, barely even registering the confused looks on Sam, Teal’c and Mitchell’s faces at this exchange. “It can’t be you… it _can’t_ be… you’re dead… I _killed_ you…”

“Oh, but it is, my ‘old _friend_ ’,” the man retorted, the same arrogant grin on his face that Daniel had seen there so many times in the past- indeed, were it not for the fact that his voice and eyes clearly indicated the presence of a Goa’uld, Daniel could almost believe that the man before him was still in complete control of his own body. “Death cannot contain me; I have come too far to fall to something as pitiful as _that_ …”

Daniel felt as though he should reply, but at the same time he knew it would have pointless; he could think of nothing to say right now. His brain was stuck in a loop, repeating the same thought over and over again, and he felt as though he still needed a few minutes before he could safely say something else.

_He’s back… he’s back… he’s back…_

* * *

  
“Take them away,” the man said, waving a hand dismissively at the Death Eaters surrounding SG-1. “I’ll work out what to do with them all later.”As the Death Eaters holding the four SG-1 members began to drag them back to the temple door, Mitchell continued to glare defiantly at the man on the throne; Hestia may have been the one in charge of this rock for the last few centuries, but, right now, it was clear that the new arrival was in command.

And, if that was the case, and they were dealing with someone new (He was prepared to ignore Daniel’s apparent recognition of the guy- he must have known the host or something), Mitchell had one thing he wanted to know.

“Hey!” he yelled at the man, smiling slightly as the man glanced up at the voice; Mitchell was still being dragged away by three Death Eaters, but at least his foe registered his presence. “If you’re going to lock us up, can you at least tell us who you _are_?”

The man smiled casually at that.

“But of course, my good sir,” he replied, as though he and Mitchell were old friends and Mitchell had just asked him a fairly trivial question about the weather. As Mitchell was finally dragged out of the door, the Goa’uld’s voice reached him from the temple, the speaker sounding ridiculously satisfied with himself as he answered Mitchell’s question.

“My name is Lord Voldemort.”


	6. Old Foes, New Escapes

As the four SG-1 members were dragged along by their captors towards a smaller temple a couple of hundred metres away- evidently a prison of some kind due to the lack of decotation- the Death Eaters who were forcing them along now joined by a mixture of Jaffa warriors, who briefly glared at Teal’c with an expression of contempt before continuing towards the temple. Whether their expression of contempt was because of the mark on his head that he had never removed- the sign of his former loyalty to Apophis- or just because they found him detestable for actually working _with_ the rest of SG-1 was unclear; all that mattered was that they, like the Death Eaters, appeared equally hostile to all of SG-1.

_No_ … Sam thought to herself, as she stared at their newest foes, not even bothering to spare a glare for the ones holding her as SG-1 was marched towards the smaller temple. _They’re_ not _being equally hostile to us… the Death Eaters are being_ especially _hostile to_ Daniel _…_

The only thing that didn’t make any sense was _why_ they were so angry at the archaeologist. Daniel had done nothing to them specifically yet, and, according to his story, he had only encountered them briefly in high school when he was seventeen, and he hadn’t told them about anything that had taken place during that encounter to make the cult especially _mad_ at _him_ …

_Unless there’s something he_ hasn’t _told us_ , Sam thought to herself, looking back at Daniel with a renewed curiosity as she mulled over that possibility in her mind.

She had to admit, his behaviour during the fight _had_ been uncharacteristically violent, to say nothing of being extremely vocal. Even when he’d been face-to-face with Apophis or Osiris, Daniel had always been able to maintain his composure, even though one of the aforementioned Goa’uld had taken his wife and the other was using the body of a woman he’d once dated.

But as _soon_ as Daniel had seen that man standing at the top of the hill, he’d practically lost it, swearing and yelling at the new arrival in a manner that was so aggressive Sam almost wasn’t sure it had even been _Daniel_ speaking, and then charged up the hill with no apparent regard for his own personal safety, an expression on his face that looked as though he wanted to rip the man apart with his bare hands.

Sam had never _seen_ Daniel that angry- and, after now-General Jack O’Neill, who’d met him on that first mission to Abydos, she’d known him longer than any of SG-1. Even when facing Apophis- the man who’d stolen his _wife_ , the woman he’d loved so much that he’d been prepared to leave Earth forever just to be with her- Daniel had remained fairly calm, actually showing compassion for the host when the symbiote lost control during that brief period when Apophis had been in their custody.

For him to lose control like that, the man he’d attacked must have done something _to_ Daniel… something that had hurt Daniel so badly that it got through all the walls he normally erected around his emotions in a matter of seconds…

_It sounded like he’d killed someone who meant a great deal to Daniel_ , Sam mused to herself, as she and her friends were forced through the door of the temple that seemed to be what their captors would use to hold them. _But why wouldn’t he have_ told _us about something like that, especially if he knew we were going up against them_?

_There’s something more going on here_ , she realised, already hurt at the fact that Daniel had kept something from them- from _her_. _But_ what…?

As SG-1 were shoved into a nearby room- with a simple door composed mainly of iron bars, Sam noted- Daniel, shaking his head slightly as though to clear it, turned to glare at one of the men who had been holding him as the door swung shut behind them.

“Enjoy yourselves while you can, you half-blood _twit_ \- and your pathetic _mudblood_ friends of yours, of course,” the figure in question said, grinning broadly under the hood of his cloak. “Once the Dark Lord decides what to do with you, that’ll be the last you see of each other.”

Upon hearing the man’s voice, Daniel looked quizzically at him for a moment before realisation seemed to strike him and a small smile appeared on his face.

“Malfoy?” he said, walking slightly closer to the door, sounding like he was ready to burst out laughing, or at least chuckle a bit, as he stared at the man in front of him. “What are _you_ doing here?”

“What do you think?” the man- _Malfoy_ , Sam took a mental note in her mind, _his name is Malfoy and he and Daniel know each other from somewhere_ \- said, sounding as though Daniel had just asked a question to which the answer was blatantly obvious, like the colour of the sky. “I simply decided to be on the _winning side_ in this conflict once more, you _idiot_ …”

“The ‘winning side’ in this case being the side that _lost_ the last time?” Daniel retorted, sounding like he was almost teasing the other man; indeed, the conversation almost sounded like something Sam would expect to hear from two _teenagers_ , as though a part of Daniel was regressing to when…

Sam’s thoughts froze.

_To when he_ knew _this man_ … she thought to herself, as she quickly glanced at what she could see of the man’s face under his hood. It was hard to be sure, given that the man seemed to have a long scar running down one side of his face and the upper half of his face was concealed beneath his hood, but he did look as though he was the same age as Daniel…

_Is_ this _the guy Daniel mentioned to us_? Sam asked herself. _The one who went to his school and was a member of this cult?_

“That was _then_ ,” ‘Malfoy’ stated simply, chuckling slightly as most of the men who’d brought them there began to walk out of the room. Apart from Malfoy, only two Death Eaters remained, standing guard outside the temple. She also noticed, much to her chagrin, that the Death Eaters and Jaffa had left SG-1’s weapons on the opposite side of the temple from the door to their cell (An action that was meant to taunt them more than anything else, Sam was sure; they could never reach their weapons, but they were easily visible).

If it wasn’t for the fact that she couldn’t see a way out of this herself, Sam would have said that the arrogance of these people beggared belief.

“ _This_ ,” Malfoy continued, still laughing slightly as he stared at Daniel, who was glaring back at him with an expression that was now merely cold hatred, initial amusement now gone, “is now.”

There was a brief pause as the two men stared at each other, each of them visibly tense as though they wanted to hit the other. Sam was only able to stare in confusion at the sight before her along with Mitchell and Teal’c, both of them just as confused as her, until Malfoy turned away and began to walk towards the door, apparently having decided to end the ‘staring contest’ (If it could be called that when _his_ eyes weren’t visible).

“Oh, Malfoy?” Daniel called after him, in a mockingly polite tone.

The man turned back to look at him, and Daniel stared at him.

“When we next meet, I’m going to hurt you,” he said simply, his face as blank as though he was ordering his next meal. “I just thought you should know that.”

Malfoy just laughed once- a harsh laugh that reminded Sam of some of the System Lords they’d encountered in the past- and then he walked out of the small temple, leaving only the two Death Eater guards at the door.

As soon as she was sure Malfoy was out of hearing range- she didn’t want to give their foes any further information about them- Sam turned to look harshly at Daniel.

“What’s going on here?” she said bluntly.

“I would appreciate being given that information as well,” Teal’c said, as he turned to look at Daniel, his eyes focused on his friend.

“Something you’d care to share with us, Jackson?” Mitchell added, looking critically at the Egyptologist as though trying to decide what to do with him.

For a moment, as he looked back at them, Sam thought that Daniel was going to come up with some kind of cover story that _wouldn’t_ be the truth, but then he sighed and nodded.

“You’re right,” he said, sounding slightly awkward as he looked at them all. “I admit that I _haven’t_ told you everything I know about these people…”

“ _That_ is an understatement!” Sam said walking over to stand in front of Daniel. She knew that she was going to be over-the top, but she’d known Daniel for almost nine years now- and personally interacted with him regularly for eight, if you took into account the year he spent Ascended and the time she spent at Area 51 before she’d been called back due to the Ori crisis- and he’d never mentioned _anything_ about a demented cult that had been responsible for the death of someone close to him, to say nothing about him having…

_No_ , Sam thought to herself.

She didn’t want to think about what Daniel had said when they’d confronted the Goa’uld in that throne room, wanted to believe that she hadn’t heard him correctly, didn’t want to think that her friend could have… done _that_ … at the age he must have been when he confronted this cult for the first time…

“You know these guys _way_ too well for your previous encounter with them to have been as brief you claimed it was when we set out!” she said, staring angrily at Daniel, trying to keep her mind on track. “They treat you as though you _completely_ ruined things for them the last time they tried something, you totally lost it just after _seeing_ that guy with the silver hand, and as for when we saw that Goa’uld beside Hestia-”

“I was shocked to see him there because I killed the host- if that’s all he is; what he said suggests to me that there’s more going on than I would have guessed at first- when I was seventeen years old,” Daniel explained, as he turned away to stare at the door once more, flexing the fingers of his left hand slightly as though trying to decide something.

Sam’s eyes widened in horror.

_No_ … she thought to herself, as Daniel stared out of the cell door at their weapons, apparently lost in thought. _He couldn’t have done that… Daniel isn’t_ capable _of that_ …

Before her train of thought could go any further, Daniel sighed and turned to look at them, an almost apprehensive expression on his face, mixed in with a certain resignation. Sam shook off her initial train of thought; Daniel evidently had something important to say.

“Look, what I’m about to do is going to seem confusing, and concerns something I hoped I’d never have to do or deal with ever again,” he explained, as he looked around at his three teammates (Sam vaguely noted that Mitchell and Teal’c seemed just as shocked as she was at Daniel’s last statement, but she couldn’t fully process it right now). “All I ask is that you wait until we’re home to ask me for a more detailed explanation, and I promise I’ll give you one…”

He swallowed slightly as he turned to look directly at Sam, as though wanting to make sure that she, at least, understood what he was about to say. “And know that, no matter what I _haven’t_ told you about my past, I’m still your friend.”

Before Sam could say anything, Daniel had pulled his left sleeve down slightly with his left hand, there was a brief movement underneath the sleeve, and then his hand emerged, holding a long, thin stick with an ornately-carved handle of some kind.

“ _Alohamora_!” Daniel said, pointing the stick at the door of the cell…

And, to Sam’s surprise, the door swung open. Before she could say anything, Daniel had dived out of the door, turning to face the main entrance to their current prison, and, raising the stick once more, yelled out “ _Stupefy_!” twice, each time accompanied by a vague thump that seemed to be someone falling to the ground.

“What the…?” Mitchell said, staring incredulously at the door as Daniel grabbed their weapons where they lay on the ground and tossed them back to their respective owners, pausing only to put his Beretta back into his pocket before he picked up the last ammunition belt and tossed it to Teal’c.

“As I said, explanations later; right now, we have to move,” he said, looking at his teammates as he indicated the temple exit. “Come _on_ ; Voldemort could notice what’s going on any minute!”

For the first time in her recollection, Sam found herself obeying a combat-situation order from Daniel. True, she’d taken a few orders from him on those occasions when SG-1 had arrived on a planet where archaeology had been the main purpose rather than their usual missions against the Goa’uld, but this was the first _Daniel_ had ever taken control when SG-1 were dealing with an active threat…

Then she heard voices yelling at them from the direction of the main temple, and her mind instinctively shifted into ‘survival mode’; right now, her priority was simply to shoot first and ask questions later.

As Daniel and Mitchell kept on running (Their teammates were between them and the temple, so they couldn’t fire themselves), she and Teal’c raised their guns and fired randomly at the figures on the hill above them. Sam smiled slightly as she saw a couple of the figures (Apparently Death Eaters based on the robes) fall back as the bullets struck them in the chest, although a few of their attackers just seemed to have sustained leg or arm injuries, since they ended up clutching those limbs as they fell.

_Perfect_ , Sam thought to herself.

She may have preferred it if these people were actually _dead_ \- at least they would have less opponents to worry about when they came back through the Stargate, as it was becoming clear they’d need to do- but at least they would no longer be actively _shooting_ at them.

_Or whatever it is they do_ , a part of Sam thought. She still couldn’t forget what Daniel had done to get them out of their cell; she had no idea _what_ he’d done there, but, if it was anything like what these people seemed to be capable of- and the fact that both Daniel and them had needed to say something at first suggested there was at least _some_ connection- it wasn’t any kind of weapon they’d encountered in the past. Even the most advanced technology needed some kind of _physical_ (Or possibly mental, in the case of some Asgard technology) stimulation to activate; she’d never encountered anything that was triggered verbally…

“ _Turn right_!” Daniel yelled back at her, as he and Mitchell sharply turned and began to run down the hill, heading straight towards the temple where the Stargate was located. Instantly, Sam and Teal’c had turned to follow their friends, Sam slinging her gun back over her shoulder even as Mitchell pulled out his own weapon; he and Teal’c were at the back now, so it made more sense for them to continue with the task of holding their opponents back.

“ _Impedimentia_!” a voice suddenly called out from off to the side. Sam spun around sharply, raising her gun to defend herself, but stopped when she saw that it was _Daniel_ who had… fired… rather than one of the Death Eaters; she noticed a Jaffa off to one side suddenly freeze as the burst of energy struck him in the chest. If they’d had the time, she might have asked what he’d just done there, but she forced herself to stay on track; their only priority now was getting to the Stargate and back to the SGC…

Then, much to her relief, she saw the temple that contained the Stargate, mercifully unguarded; evidently, Hestia and that ‘Voldemort’- whoever he was- hadn’t thought it worth posting a guard on the ‘gate just yet. As the four of them dived through the door of the temple, Sam, Mitchell and Teal’c instantly took up a position around the DHD as Daniel pressed the buttons that would send them home, all three of them prepared to fire if any of their foes so much as _stood_ outside the temple door…

“Got it!” Daniel yelled, as Sam heard the typical explosion of ‘water’ erupt from the Stargate behind them, accompanied by the familiar blue glow. Instantly SG-1 had turned around, dived through the ‘gate…

* * *

  
And then, much to Sam’s relief, they were standing in the SGC, looking at a gathering of soldiers who, until recently, had been aiming their guns at the ‘gate.“ _Close the iris_!” Daniel yelled up at the technician, who simply nodded and tapped a few buttons on the control panel before him. As Sam glanced behind her, she smiled in relief as the twenty overlapping metal blades closed over the Stargate, preventing any of the Death Eaters or Jaffa on the planet from following them back to the SGC.

As she turned back, however, Sam noticed General Landry standing in front of the Stargate, looking critically at the four SG-1 members.

“Ah… hello, general,” Mitchell said, nodding in greeting at his commanding officer. “I guess you want to know what happened?”

“That would be a good place to start, Colonel Mitchell,” Landry replied, his voice as dry as the sands of Abydos had once been.

“Well, actually, _I’m_ the one you need to ask, sir,” Daniel said, stepping forward slightly to look at Landry.

“You, Doctor Jackson?” Landry said, raising a sceptical eyebrow as he looked at the archaeologist. “Forgive me, but if there is a combat situation, surely Colonel Mitchell would be best suited to-”

“Oh, trust me, sir; Jackson here’s got a whole _lot_ to tell us about these guys,” Mitchell put in, looking at Daniel with an expression that somehow managed to be a reassuring and harsh grin simultaneously.

“ _However_ ,” Sam put in, briefly glaring at Mitchell before turning to face Landry, “I think it would be best if, for the moment, Daniel only told the four of us what happened; something tells me this is going to be a very… interesting… story, to say the least.”

“I see…” Landry said, before turning to look at Daniel. “Is that acceptable to you, Doctor Jackson?”

“Oh… yeah… it’s fine,” Daniel replied as he looked at Landry, a slightly apprehensive expression on his face as though he was already afraid of how everyone would react. A part of Sam couldn’t help but feel he deserved it- after all, he _had_ omitted vital information in a potential combat situation- but the rest of her couldn’t help but hope that he would just understand that they all cared for him, that she loved him so much that there was nothing he could do that-

_Love_?

Sam’s mind nearly froze as she realised what she’d just thought.

Love? She _loved_ Daniel…

_As a friend_ , she reminded herself, scolding herself for her stupidity as SG-1 followed Landry to the main conference room. _You love Daniel_ as a friend _… that’s all there is to it_.

Shaking that thought off- it was pointless, anyway- Sam turned her attention back to the matter of what Daniel was about to tell them.

She just hoped that, whatever he was about to reveal, it explained exactly _why_ he’d done what he... claimed to have done; she couldn't believe Daniel was capable of something like that... to that Goa’uld host…

* * *

  
A few minutes later, as he stood in the conference room, looking at the four faces staring expectantly back at him- his friends, his commanding officer, and the woman he… cared for- Daniel couldn’t help but wish that he was _anywhere_ other than here.If nothing else, at least _away_ from here he wouldn’t have to worry about the people he’d come to regard as a new family rejecting him just because he’d never told them the truth about his past.

OK, so he hadn’t exactly _lied_ \- baring that incident with Nick and the crystal skull, he liked to think that he’d told the truth every _other_ time one of his friends had asked him about his past- but would they see it that way?

He had no choice, though.

If… _he_ … was back, then his friends deserved to know the truth about his past before they got into a rematch with him.

Staring at the faces sitting before him once more, Daniel swallowed anxiously, and began to speak.

“The first thing you need to understand, if you’re going to accept what I’m about to tell you, is that magic- wizards, witches and all- is real, and the Death Eaters can use it,” he began.

For a moment he paused, thinking that someone- most likely Sam- was going to voice some kind of protest, but she didn’t. Evidently she, Mitchell and Teal’c had seen enough during the fight to accept that there was more going on here then even they could fully understand, and as for Landry… well, he was most likely going to let Daniel say his piece before voicing any doubts he may have.

“And the _second_ thing is that I wasn’t _born_ with the name ‘Daniel Jackson’,” Daniel continued. A part of him couldn’t help but feel a touch of pain at the expression on Sam’s face, as she looked at him with an expression that suggested she suddenly wasn’t sure about him…

Taking a deep breath, Daniel said the five words he’d prayed he would never have to say to his friends, the five words that, he knew, would change everything forever.

“My name is Harry Potter.”


	7. Harry Potter's Story

“‘Harry Potter’?” Mitchell said, leaning forward in his chair to stare at Daniel- whatever his name might _have_ been, it _was_ Daniel for the moment- with a sceptical expression. “No offence, but that sounds a bit… a bit…”

“Stupid? Odd?” Daniel replied, chuckling slightly. “Yeah, I know it’s a bit strange in its way, but there are worse names in the wizarding world- I mean, _Draco Malfoy_ just sounds _completely_ ridiculous…”

For a brief moment, Daniel wanted to just forget his current problems and chuckle slightly, but shook his head and forced himself to focus on what he had to tell his friends; poking fun at his old school nemesis, while entertaining, would have to wait.

“Anyway, what you need to understand most about what I’m about to tell you is that, like any group of people, there are evil witches and wizards as well as good ones,” he explained, as he looked around the room, still waiting for someone to question him. Landry, he noted, was looking increasingly sceptical, but so far he was remaining silent, prepared to let Daniel speak before voicing his doubts, and Sam at least seemed willing to accept his explanation, although Teal’c and Mitchell still seemed slightly sceptical. “About… sixty years ago, I think it was- I never felt that inclined to look for more specific information about him- one particular wizard, born and raised in Britain, went as bad as you could get. His real name was Tom Marvolo Riddle, but he insisted upon being known as ‘Lord Voldemort’- an anagram of his real name- for no apparent reason other than that he thought it sounded good.”

Mitchell looked up sharply at that.

“What; you mean like the Goa’uld we encountered back there?” he said, staring in confusion at Daniel. “But _why_ would he call himself-”

Daniel raised one hand in a halting gesture.

“Let me finish,” he said, looking in a focused manner at Mitchell, who just nodded in a slightly sheepish manner. “I’ll explain that- or try to, at least- in its own time.”

Noting the focused expression on Daniel’s face, Mitchell simply nodded and allowed the archaeologist to continue speaking.

“I presume I would be correct in saying that this ‘Voldemort’- even if he is not the person we encountered on our mission- was not a very pleasant individual to know if you were not on his side?” Teal’c asked, raising an inquiring eyebrow as he looked at Daniel.

“No, he wasn’t,” Daniel replied, shaking his head. “He was what wizard society calls a ‘half-blood’ himself- that means that his mother was a witch but his father was just an ordinary human- but he went around acting as though _both_ of his parents had possessed magical abilities, and proclaiming to anyone who’d listen to him that any wizard who wasn’t a ‘pure-blood’ wasn’t fit to live. With that attitude behind him, he began to gather a group of people together who shared his so-called ‘vision’ of a ‘pure world’, and began a campaign of terror against everyone else on the planet, although he concentrated his efforts on Britain; I think he didn’t really want to leave home.”

“A ‘pure world’ in his opinion being…?” Sam asked, looking inquiringly at Daniel. She already had an idea, of course, but she’d prefer to hear it confirmed by her friend, even if she _was_ a bit annoyed at him at the moment…

“A world with no non-magical people in it, along with a world that didn’t have any wizards who were either born into muggle- that’s what wizards call people without any magic- families or had at least one non-magical parent,” Daniel explained. Noticing Sam’s confusion, he felt the need to elaborate. “Magic isn’t a purely genetic thing, from what I learnt during my time at school. Somehow, it can crop up seemingly at random in families that haven’t shown so much as the slightest trace of magic for generations.”

He smiled slightly, as though at a fond memory, but as a brief expression of melancholy crossed his face, Daniel shook his head slightly and began to talk again, his expression serious once more. “Anyway, Voldemort and his followers- the Death Eaters, naturally; that’s where they come into this story- launched a campaign of terror on the wizard and muggle world alike, committing numerous murders, often just of innocent people who happened not to measure up to Voldemort’s standards of perfection. A resistance force was organised against them by Albus Dumbledore, widely regarded as the greatest wizard of the modern age, known as the ‘Order of the Phoenix’, but even they couldn’t stop Voldemort…”

He paused for a moment, briefly feeling a slight catch in his throat as he finally reached the part of this story that directly affected _him_ , but he still continued regardless.

“Until, one night, around thirty-eight years ago, a woman made a prophecy, revealing the birth of the only person in the world capable of defeating Voldemort, and giving the Order a new hope for victory against Voldemort’s forces,” he said.

“Wait; a _prophecy_?” Sam said, leaning forward to stare critically at Daniel. “Are you telling me that… magic… can allow people to predict the future?”

“Only a few witches and wizards can do it, and I don’t think they can actually _control_ what they’re looking at,” Daniel replied, briefly looking directly at Sam before he continued to address the entire table. “Anyway, according to the prophecy, in the last days of July of that year, a boy with the power to ‘vanquish the Dark Lord’ would be born to parents who had defeated a plan of Voldemort’s on three different occasions, and would be marked by Voldemort himself as an equal…”

For a brief moment, as he recalled how those simple words had ended up practically condemning him to a destiny he’d never wanted before he’d even been born, a part of Daniel didn’t _want_ to continue talking…

But he had to.

He’d kept too much from his friends for too long; now, more than ever before, they _had_ to know…

“And then, towards the end of July, Harry James Potter was born to Lily Evans and James Potter, a muggle-born witch and a pureblood wizard, members of the Order of the Phoenix who had been responsible for three of Voldemort’s most pivotal defeats,” he said.

Sam looked up sharply at that, confusion evident on her face.

“James and Lily _Potter_?” she asked, looking at Daniel in confusion. “But… if _they’re_ your parents, where do the Jacksons…”

“I’ll explain that when the time comes, Sam; I promise,” Daniel said, looking reassuringly at her before he continued to talk. “Anyway, Voldemort became aware of the prophecy, and so my parents went into hiding, using a complex spell to conceal the secret of their true location with an old friend of my father’s from school, but he betrayed their location to Voldemort. He arrived in their house on Halloween when I was just a year old, and…”

He swallowed slightly as he stopped talking for a moment, reaching over to clasp a nearby chair as though to give him strength, and then he continued to talk. “He killed my father, and then killed my mother when she wouldn’t step aside and let him kill me.”

For a moment, Daniel was silent, head bowed as his shoulders shook slightly, and, for a moment, Sam was tempted to just reach over and place a reassuring hand on his shoulder…

But, at the same time, a part of her was, much as she was ashamed to admit it, actually _glad_ to see Daniel crying. She’d known him for nearly a decade now, and he’d never mentioned so much as a _thing_ about any of this, when she’d felt comfortable with telling him about her past whenever the occasion arose…

If she’d had a little more time to react, Sam might have tried to comfort Daniel- or Harry; she’d have to ask him if he wanted them to start calling him something else later- but he looked up and started talking once again, a faint redness around his eyes the only hint at how deeply what he was saying affected him.

“Nobody’s ever been totally certain as to _how_ it happened,” he continued, his voice sounding slightly hoarse as though he were about cry once more, “but, somehow, after my mother’s… well, her sacrifice… it granted me some kind of protection… and Voldemort’s attempt to curse me backfired, leaving him as a practically nonexistent spirit, while I was left with only a scar on my forehead that looked like a bolt of lightning- the ‘mark’ that showed me as Voldemort’s equal that the prophecy mentioned.”

“A scar?” Mitchell said, his eyes automatically flicking to Daniel’s forehead, as though looking for something that he might have missed earlier. Of course, there wasn’t anything there- Daniel’s forehead was as smooth and unmarked as it had been for the last six years since he got his shorter haircut- but a part of Harry couldn’t help but sigh slightly as this echo back to his past.

“I had plastic surgery to get rid of the scar a few years ago, when I’d finally earned the money to afford the operation; it was too distinctive for my liking, really,” Daniel explained, answering Mitchell’s unanswered query. “Before I managed to get the money together for the operation, I relied on basic make-up and my long hair to keep it concealed; that’s why I stopped wearing my hair like that,” he added, off Sam’s curious expression, before he continued to talk.

“Anyway, after my parents’ deaths, I was sent to live with my aunt and uncle- Petunia and Vernon Dursley, and their _ridiculously_ spoilt son Dudley- for about ten years- my mother’s sacrifice granted me some kind of ‘blood protection’ so long as I stayed with a relative of hers- until I received a letter on my eleventh birthday inviting me to attend Hogwarts’ School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.”

Sam’s jaw nearly dropped in surprise at that,

A school for _wizards_? If she’d ever really thought about magic, she’d assumed that the people who used it were just instinctively gifted with knowledge of what spells and incantations did what.

An entire _school_ for them… the fact that something like that could be kept _secret_ from the world was incredible…

Shaking her head, she noticed Daniel smile slightly as he continued to speak; evidently, he had fond memories of the school in question.

“It was like a dream come true for me, really,” he said, one corner of his mouth turned up in a half-smile as he continued to speak. “True, everyone kept on gawking at my forehead when all I wanted to do was be a normal student- it’s hard to get away from the fact that you defeated a powerful Dark Lord before you could even speak coherently- but I had fun. For the first time in my life, I even had _friends_ ; my aunt and uncle had never really cared about me, regarding me as a freak just because I could do magic, and my cousin tormented anyone who looked like they might show me some common courtesy.”

“Wait a minute,” Sam said, raising her hand to interrupt Daniel as she stared at him incredulously. “You mean… your own _relatives_ hated you just because you could do _magic_?”

Daniel shrugged. “Personally, I think my aunt was just jealous that my mum could do all this stuff and she couldn’t, so, in her mind, she tried to deal with it by making magic something to be hated,” he said, his voice in a neutral tone; he’d had twenty years to get over his upbringing, he could handle having to talk about it once more. “Anyway, as I was saying, I had two specific friends while I was at Hogwarts; Ron Weasley, one of the seven Weasley children- the Weasley family commonly had several children despite being fairly poor- and Hermione Granger, a muggle-born witch with an _unbelievable_ talent for magic.

“Unfortunately, our school years were invariably eventful ones, and it wasn’t just because some of the teachers made things difficult- the Potions teacher in particular, Severus Snape, had a grudge against my father for the way they’d hated each other when _they_ were at school, and seemed to assume that I went around with a head the size of the Stargate when actually I was perfectly content to just be a normal student.”

As Daniel paused for a moment, Sam’s eyes widened slightly in surprise as she noticed the expression on Daniel’s face as he spoke about the teacher in question; specifically, cold hatred.

What could this ‘Snape’ have done to Daniel- or Harry, as he was known then- that would make Daniel hate himlike that…?

“Anyway,” Daniel said, as he continued to speak, “as I said, my school years featured several events taking place that normally _wouldn’t_ have occurred in even a magical school. In my first year, the spirit- or whatever you want to call it; he claimed later to have been less than a ghost at this point- of Voldemort possessed one of the teachers to try and gain access to the Philosopher’s Stone, an artefact that would allow him access to the Elixir of Life, which would make him immortal and give him a new body. Ron and Hermione helped me get past the traps protecting the stone, but it came down to just Voldemort and I. My mother’s protection somehow caused the body Voldemort was using to be… well, burnt to cinders, really… and the Stone was destroyed.

“Second year, a diary containing a fragment of Voldemort’s soul- a version of himself when he was sixteen, to be precise- was slipped to Ron’s sister, Ginny Weasley…”

For a moment, Daniel paused, once again leaning on a nearby chair as he lowered his head, but, as soon as Sam began to move her arm towards him, he looked up once more and continued to speak. “The diary essentially possessed her, using her body to access a secret chamber that had been hidden in Hogwarts years ago, and contained a basilisk- a massive serpent that could literally kill you just by looking at you. Fortunately, anyone it attacked was only petrified- they only saw its reflection or saw it _through_ something, and never looked directly into its eyes- and Hermione eventually worked out what was going on, helped by the fact that I could speak Parseltongue.”

“You could speak what?” Landry asked, looking in confusion at Daniel.

“Snake-language, basically,” Daniel said, before chuckling slightly.

“What’s the joke?” Mitchell asked, looking curiously at Daniel.

“Just thinking that, in the old days, we’d probably have heard some comment from Jack about how you guys already knew that, and I’d have retorted by saying that I’m talking about actual _snakes_ in this case…” Daniel said, by way of explanation.

“Oh… yeah,” Sam said, smiling slightly at the thought of their old commander. It was true enough; Jack O’Neill probably _would_ have made some comment like that…

Then she fully processed what Daniel had said.

“You can talk to _snakes_?” she said, staring incredulously at her friend.

Daniel sighed. “Yeah, I know; it’s something that apparently got accidentally transferred into me when Voldemort tried to kill me,” he explained. “His mother came from a family where that trait had been prominent for generations, and somehow, when the curse that was meant to kill me… failed… it forged a certain ‘link’ between us; the scar hurt when he was close by or feeling particularly malicious, we occasionally had visions of what the other one was seeing, that sort of thing.”

Shaking his head, he continued his story. “Anyway, Hermione was petrified before she could reveal what she’d discovered, but Ron and I found a couple of clues she’d left to help us along, and managed to destroy the diary before it could drain Ginny’s energy to fuel itself; the basilisk was also killed, but I had a bit of help there from a phoenix.”

“A phoenix?” Teal’c said, looking inquiringly at Daniel.

“A mythological bird; when it reaches the end of its life, it bursts into flames and is reborn from the ashes, capable of carrying heavy loads and travelling from place to place in a blaze of fire,” Daniel explained, smiling once again. “Actually, the phoenix in question donated the core of my wand; an interesting coincidence, I’ve always felt.”

“ _Wand_?” Mitchell said, looking at Daniel with ever-increasing surprise, although this was accompanied by an eager smile. “You have a _wand_?”

Smiling, Daniel reached into his left sleeve, pulled out the wand once more- he’d put it away again as he was dialling the DHD- and passed it over to Mitchell, a small smile on his face.

“Made of holly and with a phoenix feather at its core- the core kind of acts as a ‘power source’, if you want to think of it in technological terms,” Daniel explained as Mitchell studied the wand in his hand, a small smile on his face. “Each wand is unique to its user, and can only be used effectively by the wizard who owns it. May I?” he added, holding out a hand to Mitchell, who simply passed him back the wand; Daniel had noticed the increasingly sceptical expression on Landry’s face, and wanted to try something to prove that he _wasn’t_ crazy.

“Sam, could you pick up that file over there, please?” he asked, indicating a file off to one side. “I just want to show you guys an example of what I can do.”

“OK…” Sam said, a slightly sceptical tone in her voice as she reached back to pick up the folder in question. Turning back to the table, she held the folder out in front of her, and looked back at Daniel. “Is this OK?”

“Perfect,” Daniel smiled, as he raised the wand. “ _Expelliarmus_!”

As he spoke, a jet of red light burst from the wand, struck the file in Sam’s hand, and sent it flying into the air, where Daniel neatly snatched it out of the air.

“The Disarming Spell,” he explained, as he noticed Mitchell’s incredulous expression. “A useful bit of magic in a combat situation, really; your opponent loses his weapon while you’re free to continue fighting.”

Slipping the wand back down his sleeve, he continued to tell his story. “Anyway, third year was fairly quiet; I confronted the guy who betrayed my parents- a wizard called Peter Pettigrew- but he managed to get away before any officials could put him back in prison. In fourth year, I was forced to participate in a tournament against two other magical schools- _and_ attend a ball even though I was _really_ uncomfortable with dancing- but, at the end, it turned out to be a trap set by Voldemort and Pettigrew so that he could acquire a sample of my blood and use it in a ritual that would give him a new body.”

“Was it successful?” Teal’c asked, looking at Daniel quizzically.

“Yeah, it was,” Daniel said, nodding slightly. For a moment, Sam saw an expression of pure hatred cross Daniel’s face, the kind of anger that she’d never seen him display even when he had been face-to-face with some of the worst the Goa’uld had to offer, but then it vanished and he continued to tell his story. “He stayed quiet for a year or so afterwards- he didn’t want to let anyone _know_ he was back, and the wizard rulers were perfectly happy to feign ignorance as they were _totally_ unprepared to cope with a second war against Voldemort- but his return was eventually publicly exposed when he tried to acquire the copy of the prophecy about the two of us that was made all those years ago- he hadn’t heard the whole of it, and wanted to see if there was something else about the content that he should be aware of.”

Something about Daniel’s body language suggested to Sam that there was more to that story than he was telling them, but, since he seemed to be giving them everything they needed to know, she decided not to push the issue; if there was something he seemed to have omitted, he probably had a good reason for it.

“The year after that,” Daniel continued, “as Voldemort began his familiar murder sprees against anyone who opposed him, Ginny and I began dating, and I learned more about how Voldemort had managed to survive being hit by his own curse all those years ago; he’d made six horcruxes.”

“Six what?” Mitchell asked, looking in confusion at Daniel.

“Essentially,” Daniel explained, “a horcrux is an ancient dark magical artefact- widely believed to be the darkest magical object known to exist- that allows the user to live practically forever, but at the cost of fracturing their very _soul_ into pieces. As I understand it, killing people causes damage to the soul on some level, so the maker of the horcrux uses a spell to take advantage of that damage and place a piece of his soul somewhere else-”

“And the result is he’s unkillable because, even if you kill his _body_ , these… horcrux thingies… are still hanging around, acting as a kind of anchor for whatever’s left in his body?” Mitchell asked, waving his hand in an uncertain manner.

“Exactly,” Daniel said, nodding at Mitchell. “As it turned out, the diary that had controlled Ginny in my second year was one of them, and another had been destroyed over the summer, but that still left four horcruxes unaccounted for; seven was regarded as the most powerful magical number, but the seventh fragment of Voldemort’s soul remained in his body, and was the last piece that would need to be destroyed.

“With this in mind, Ron, Hermione and I set out to find and destroy the remaining horcruxes. I tried to break up with Ginny for her own safety- I was worried that if Voldemort knew how I felt about her, he might try and kill her to get back at me- but she convinced me that she was in danger anyway simply because she was a pure-blood who saw muggle-borns as equals, and we got back together. I even started spending some more time with the eldest Weasley brother- Bill Weasley, who worked as a curse breaker for the wizard bank in Egypt- and he started my interest in Egyptian history and cultures. It was also at around this point that I began to learn I had a certain natural talent for languages, as I learnt a few of them to help in the search for the horcruxes; my personal theory about that is that, since my brain was already capable of understanding _snakes_ as though they were speaking English, it wasn’t that much of a stretch for my brain to learn other human languages, and I'd soon picked up about ten more in between searching for the remaining horcruxes.”

“Did you find the horcruxes of which you speak?” Teal’c asked.

Daniel sighed deeply as he thought back to those dark days, when he could never be sure where his next meal was coming from or whether he’d be able to get a decent night’s sleep without somebody charging in to kill him…

“Eventually, but it wasn’t without some losses; Ron was killed during a Death Eater ambush after we located a horcrux in the muggle orphanage where Voldemort grew up, and Hermione was forced to go into St Mungo’s- a magical hospital- after an attempt to destroy Voldemort’s snake, Nagini- the last horcrux- nearly resulted in her being fatally poisoned,” Daniel explained, pulling out a chair and collapsing into it as he recalled the events of those last few days. “Damnit…” he muttered under his breath, apparently descending into a familiar pattern of blaming himself for something he couldn’t have controlled, “if I’d just been a _bit_ faster, I might have been able to save him…”

Sam was about to reach out and try to comfort him, but Daniel stood up before she could make a move.

“Anyway,” he said, as he looked around at his friends, grateful to see that they were still listening intently to his story, “it was while Ginny and I were sitting by Hermione’s bed that we were visited by Pettigrew himself…”


	8. Flashback: Wormtail's Message

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clarify, the next few chapters focus on a flashback to the final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort, and the events that led to Harry’s decision to leave the wizarding world and become Daniel Jackson; once the flashback is over, the story will continue in the present

_“Come on, Hermione…” Harry said, clutching the hand of the girl he’d come to regard as a sister as she lay in a bed in St Mungo’s, in a private ward away from the rest of the people, her face pale and her eyes closed. “You can’t just die now… Ron wouldn’t want that…”_

_Sitting beside him, Ginny sighed slightly as she stared at the girl who’d been one of her closest friends even before she started dating Ginny’s now-dead brother, before looking back at Harry._

_“You really think she’ll pull through?” she asked him, a questioning gaze in her eyes._

_“Your dad did,” Harry said simply, as he continued to look at Hermione. “That’s good enough for me right now.”_

_Even as he spoke, however, a part of him wished that he could take that sad, frightened expression away from Ginny’s face, if only for a brief while. He had the means to do it, he knew- or at least hoped he had the means to do it- but, with the situation the way it was…_

_He couldn’t do it._

_He couldn’t be sure he’d manage to give her a guarantee that he’d be there to fulfil his promise._

_It made a nice gesture to show that he’d try and be there, true, but given that there was always the possibility of Voldemort mounting a surprise attack on him, whether personally or with one of his Death Eaters…_

_No._

_When he knew for certain that Voldemort was dead- or at least knew that the odds were in his favour for Voldemort being dead shortly- he’d ask Ginny the question he’d been wanting to ask for a while now._

_Until then, he wasn’t going to say it._

_After they’d been sitting there for a few moments, Ginny looked over at Harry._

_“How are you, anyway?” she asked._

_Harry shrugged. “I got out alive,” he said dismissively._

_“Harry…” Ginny said, staring critically at her boyfriend. Harry tried to ignore her for a few moments- there were some things he just didn’t want to tell her about his attempts to find the horcruxes- but, finally, he sighed and nodded._

_“OK, I had a close call or two, but it was nothing that couldn’t be healed in a few minutes in the hospital wing,” the young man said, looking over at Ginny with a small smile on his face. “No offence, but I thought that_ I’m _meant to be worrying about_ you _in a relationship?”_

_“Worrying is a two-way street, buster,” Ginny retorted, glaring back at Harry briefly her face broke into a grin, the two of them chuckling slightly at the idle banter in those brief moments before the reality of the situation set in once again and they turned back to look at Hermione, still lying before them, almost too still for comfort, her face pale from the poison that had so nearly killed her._

_The infirmary at Hogwarts may have become his second bedroom- his Hogwarts dorms would always be his first, while his ‘room’ at Privet Drive barely even qualified as a ‘room’ in any sense of the word- but Harry would always hate hospitals. He sometimes wondered if some higher power was punishing him for being the ‘Boy Who Lived’ by seeing just how much damage Harry could take before he actually died for good…_

_“So… that’s them all?” Ginny said finally, looking anxiously over at Harry._

_Harry nodded. “Oh yeah… all six horcruxes are gone for good; the ring, the diary, the locket, the cup, the quill, and the snake,” he said, sighing slightly as he stared at Hermione. “Wish the destruction of that bloody Nagini hadn’t resulted in_ this _, but at least he’s vulnerable now…”_

_Groaning, he slumped back in his chair, one hand clasping his forehead. “I just wish I knew where he_ was _…”_

_“W-well,” a voice said from off to one side, “if you w-want to f-find the D-Dark Lord, I m-might be a-able to h-help you in th-that regard…”_

_At those words, Harry and Ginny’s eyes widened in shock as they spun around to face the man who’d just arrived in the private ward. He was a short man with a large bald patch in his rapidly greying colourless hair, and his general appearance gave the impression that he’d lost a lot of weight in little time a while back and had never really managed to get it back. There was something vaguely rat-like about his small eyes and pointed nose, and his right had was made entirely of a gleaming, silver material that could almost have been mistaken for a glove if it weren’t joined directly to his wrist._

_It was Peter Pettigrew, AKA Wormtail. Former Marauder of Hogwarts’ School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, one-time Secret Keeper for Lily and James Potter, the man who’d spent twelve years posing as a rat called Scabbers who belonged to the Weasley family…_

_And the man who’d betrayed Harry’s parents._

_“YOU!” Harry roared, as he and Ginny pulled their wands out and pointed them threateningly at Wormtail, who cowered back as he raised his hands in front of his face. “What the_ Hell _are you doing here!”_

_“W-wait!” Wormtail said, as he covered his eyes as though he was a small child hiding under his blanket to escape the bogeyman. “I di-didn’t come here to fight; I w-want to_ talk _!”_

_“Oh yeah, you really want to_ talk _, don’t you, you goddamn_ bastard _,” Harry growled as he stared at the man who’d ruined his life before he was even old enough to fully realise what was happening. He may have stopped Sirius and Lupin from killing Wormtail back in his third year, but that was only because he didn’t want them to be guilty of cold-blooded murder; right now, he was perfectly prepared to knock this git around a lot and then worry about morality. “You sold out my parents, spent twelve years hiding out as a rat while an innocent man was forced to stay in Azkaban, and then participated in a ritual that gave the most ferocious dark wizard who ever lived his body once again? You want to talk_ NOW _?”_

_“Look, I k-know I don’t have the most…_ trustworthy _… past…” Wormtail said, stuttering nervously as he stared at Harry. “But… please… you have to help me… the D-Dark Lord just won’t stop… the Death Eaters just can’t forgive me for hiding away for all those years-”_

_“Then we have something in common with them,” Ginny stated coldly, glaring angrily at Wormtail from where she stood, slightly behind and to the left of Harry. “What makes you think_ we’ll _forgive_ you _for what you did to Harry?”_

_Swallowing, Wormtail looked upat the young wizard, who was staring at him wand outstreached, with a fixed, angered expression on his face._

_“I k-know this doesn’t make up for it, but th-this m-might h-help,” Wormtail said, as he reached slowly into his pocket, pulled a worn note that looked like it had been read and re-read several times, and passed it to Harry, his hand trembling as Harry reached out to take the note and study what was written on it._

The Dark Lord is to be found at the Riddle House, on the outskirts of Little Hangleton

_Harry’s eyes widened at the note, and he stared critically at Wormtail._

_“What is-” he began, before his eyes widened slightly as inspiration struck him. “The Fidelius Charm?”_

_“And Voldemort’s the Secret Keeper, so it’s impossible for anyone else to find him unless he tells them where he is himself?” Ginny continued, indicating the note. Wormtail nodded, and she continued. “But then… why would he write it down?”_

_“H-he only writes it w-when s-someone- like a new D-Death Eater- doesn’t know the address a-and he can’t be b-bothered telling them h-himself,” Wormtail explained. “H-he gives the n-note to whoever’s nearby a-and orders t-them to b-burn it once they’re d-done-”_

_“And you didn’t burn this one, mmm?” Harry said, raising an eyebrow as he studied the note, nodding thoughtfully for a moment before looking up at Wormtail. “Well, it certainly fits with why we can’t find Voldemort anywhere, but why are you giving us this_ now _? It’s only been a couple of days since I found the last horcrux; Voldemort would probably be expecting an attack-”_

_“A-actually, he’s just about to l-leave the Riddle House; th-that’s why I’m g-giving you this n-now,” Wormtail explained, indicating the note. “He’s m-moving to a m-more secure location- I don’t k-know w-where yet- and I d-don’t know if he’ll ever do something s-similar to th-this after he’s re-relocated, s-so t-this is your o-only ch-chance of stopping h-him while h-he’s alone…”_

_Harry nodded thoughtfully as he studied the note, but then Ginny stepped forward to glare at Wormtail._

_“You wouldn’t be doing this unless you wanted something from us in return,” she said, her eyes fixed on Wormtail’s so intently that the rat animagus visibly cowered under her stare. “What is it? Because if you’re after freedom, you won’t be getting it; you’ve done way too much for us to even_ think _about letting you go.”_

_Wormtail nodded weakly. “I k-know that, Miss W-Weasley,” he said, looking at her with an increasingly pale face, as though he was going to pass out at any minute. “A-all I ask is that y-you just d-don’t have me executed straight after I-I’m sent t-to A-Azkaban.”_

_Harry nodded at that._

_“Seems fair…” he said, as he studied Wormtail for a moment, before finally coming to a decision. “Could you… just wait outside for a moment? I’d like to talk with Ginny about this-_ in private _.”_

_“O-of course,” Wormtail said, before he turned around and headed for the door, closely it quietly behind him. If anyone came by the room, Harry assumed Wormtail would just turn into a rat to escape being noticed, but otherwise he doubted the man would do anything; if he ran off now, he knew that both sides would be after him fairly quickly._

_Besides, as much as he may have been terrified at the prospect, Azkaban was the only chance he had of staying alive; the Death Eaters would probably kill him straight away._

_The two of them gave it a moment to see if they could hear Wormtail anywhere, and then Ginny spoke._

_“I don’t trust him,” she said, looking over at Harry._

_Harry nodded in agreement as he glanced at the door. “After what he did to my parents, I’d have to be brain-dead to believe anything he tells me,” he said. For a moment, Ginny thought that was all he was going to say, but then he sighed slightly and looked back at the note in his hand. “Still… if there’s even the chance that what he's just told us is authentic…”_

_“You are_ not _going there alone!” Ginny said, stepping back to glare at Harry sharply. “We’re calling the Order, we can have the entire Auror force on Voldemort in a matter of minutes-”_

_“Ginny, slow down and listen to yourself for a minute,” Harry interrupted, as he stared critically at his girlfriend. “Even assuming we could tell enough people what Wormtail’s told us- and assuming that they don’t take ages to come up with some kind of stupid, elaborate, professional plan of attack once they’ve decided to at least_ assume _he’s being honest with us- what are the chances that we’ll manage to take Voldemort by surprise? I somehow doubt Voldemort will have made it that easy for just_ anyone _to apparate_ directly _into the Riddle house, and by the time we’ve got enough people through the door to make a difference, he’ll probably have disapparated anyway; those kind of numbers would attract too much attention.”_

_He shook his head as he looked at Ginny. “No; it has to be me-_ just _me. Anyone else, and there’s a good chance Voldemort will hear us coming in. He’ll probably miss one person, but any more would be chancing it.”_

_Smiling slightly, as though at an amusing thought, Harry looked back at Ginny. “Besides, unlike the last few times we’ve fought, this time, he_ doesn’t _know that I’m coming; that gives me an advantage.”_

_Ginny looked up at Harry for a moment, her mouth opening and closing as though she was trying to come to a decision, until, finally, she sighed and slumped back onto the corner of the bed._

_“You know, I really hate it when you make a good point,” she said, as she stared up at him, a slight pout on her face._

_Harry shrugged, a slightly sheepish grin on his face._

_“Yeah, well, that’s life, I guess,” he said, before his face became more serious as he looked at Ginny. “Just one thing; the two of you are going to have to stay at Grimmauld Place while I’m going after Tom.”_

_“WHAT!” Ginny yelled, staring incredulously at Harry; if he hadn’t known Ginny wouldn’t do something like that, he would have sworn she was about to him. “You can’t be serious!”_

_“I can’t be anything_ but _serious!” Harry retorted, grabbing Ginny’s shoulders to stare at her. “Look, we both know that the Order have abandoned Grimmauld Place since Dumbledore’s death; it’s the only place I can be absolutely certain is somewhere you won’t be found by some lucky Death Eater trying to make a name for themselves... and besides, I need someone to keep an eye on Wormtail; if he doesn't at least_ try _to make a break for it, I'll be_ very _surprised.”_

_Ginny opened her mouth, but Harry raised his hand to stop her. “Before you start, don’t worry; you know the layout of the house better than that… rat… ever could- I somehow doubt Sirius had the Marauders over in the holidays- and anyway, Wormtail’s hardly a competent duellist. Just stay far enough away from him so that you’ve got time to retaliate if he tries anything, and you should be fine, OK?”_

_Ginny paused for a moment, her face deep in thought as she went over Harry’s proposed plan, and then groaned as she looked at him once again._

_“You know, keep this up, and I’m going to want to hurt you when this is all over,” she said, glaring at him. “You can’t keep sending me away like this, you know.” Harry opened his mouth to speak, but Ginny raised a hand to stop him. “Oh, I understand your reasons; I’m just saying that, after all this effort to keep me safe, you’d better come back so I’ve got a reason for staying alive all this time.”_

_“Trust me, Ginny; once this is over, wild horses couldn’t drag me away from you,” Harry said, smiling at her briefly before an apprehensive expression crossed his face. “But… well, if you_ really _want to know that I’ll come back…”_

_He swallowed, glancing around to make sure that the door was locked and the room was completely empty (Hermione being in a coma, she didn’t really count, but he definitely didn’t want someone walking in on them), and then pulled a small velvet box out of his pocket as he bent down on one knee._

_This wasn’t exactly when he would have preferred to do this, of course- Voldemort was still alive, after all, and in a perfect world he’d do this once the final battle was over- but the odds were good that the situation would change pretty soon, so he’d just have to hope for the best and try even harder not to get killed._

_“I know it’s a bit cliché for the heroes to do something like this before the final battle,” he said, as he looked up at Ginny, who was staring at him with a shocked expression, “but… well, I’ve already nearly lost you once, and, if the worse comes to the worst- which I will endeavour to make sure doesn’t happen- I want you to know that… well, that I love you.”_

_Opening the box to reveal a gleaming gold ring, a small diamond in the centre with two gleaming rubies on both sides of it._

_“Ginerva Molly Weasley,” Harry said, looking anxiously up at his girlfriend, “will you marry me?”_

_Ginny could only blink rapidly as she stared at the ring in Harry’s hand, tears of joy shimmering in her eyes._

_“Harry… I… Oh, God… yes,” she answered, her voice faltering as she stared at the ring. For a moment, she could only stare as Harry took her left hand and slowly placed the ring on her finger, but then, as he stood up, smiling broadly at her, she grabbed him around the neck and began to kiss him for all she was worth…_

* * *

  
“Hold on a minute here; you _proposed_ to her?” Mitchell said, staring incredulously at Daniel, interrupting the flow of the story for the moment. “You? No offence, but the last time I checked, you-”

“Weren’t exactly that self-confident around women?” Daniel replied, chuckling slightly as he stared briefly up at the ceiling before looking back at the rest of SG-1, a slightly saddened expression on his face. “Trust me, Cam; a lot can change in a couple of decades…”

“But… you were _seventeen_!” Sam said, staring incredulously at Daniel from where she sat opposite him. She knew that, once again, she was making a big deal for no good reason, but it was sounding increasingly like Daniel (Or Harry, or whatever he wanted to call himself) had been lying to them for years. “Weren’t you a bit _young_ to be thinking about stuff like that?”

“Sam, I’d witnessed the deaths of my mentor and the man who was my brother in every way but blood the previous year; that kind of thing makes you want to think about the future,” Daniel said, looking over at Sam as he spoke. “Besides… I loved Ginny, and I wanted her to know that.”

Despite herself, Sam felt a pang of jealously at Ginny’s name; just the look on Daniel’s face made it clear that Ginny had meant just as much to him as Sha’re had…

_And why does that bother me so much_? Sam asked herself, as Daniel turned back to address the entire table. _Putting aside the fact that he never told us about this- and really, would we have even believed him in the past- I should be happy he had someone to love in the past_ …

“Anyway, it was fairly straightforward convincing Wormtail to stay at Grimmauld Place with Ginny; he wasn’t all that keen on going out in public in case a Death Eater caught him before I’d finished Voldemort off. I gave Ginny a kiss goodbye, made sure Wormtail was where I’d told him to stay- the kitchen; Ginny knew where everything was if she wanted food, so she wouldn’t need to turn her back to Wormtail if she got hungry- and then…”

Daniel swallowed slightly, a pained expression crossing his face, as though his words had brought back a painful memory, and he reached over to clutch the nearby table, his head bowed.

“Daniel?” Sam asked looking at him in concern. “What’s wrong?”

“Just… that was the last chance I ever got to kiss her,” Daniel said as he looked up at Sam, pain in his eyes. “The next time I saw her… she died only minutes later.”

“Oh God…” Sam whispered to herself, her earlier… jealousy… forgotten in light of this latest revelation.

“But how-” Mitchell began, before Daniel held up a hand to stop him.

“In time,” he said simply, before turning back to address the full table. “With Ginny safe- or so I thought at the time- I soon found myself at the Riddle House…”


	9. Flashback: Final Showdown

_A few minutes after departing from Grimmauld Place, Harry was standing outside the door to the Riddle House, the Invisibility Cloak pulled over his head as he took a moment to re-organize his thoughts; no matter how often he’d done it over the last few months, apparition was not his favourite way to travel._

_Glancing around himself once more, Harry grinned slightly as he saw that there weren’t any Death Eaters around here; evidently, Voldemort was so secure in the Fidellus Charm that he didn’t think anyone would find him here, so didn’t see the point of having any additional security._

_Either that, or he’s arrogant enough to think that, if something did know about this place, they wouldn’t dare attack it, Harry mused to himself as he walked through the door of the house. Glancing around once inside, he noticed with a slight sigh that Voldemort seemed to have gone over-the-top in keeping the house as dark and gloomy as possible…_

_Hell, there were even cobwebs hanging from the ceiling and the posts!_

_If that wasn’t a cliché, Harry didn’t know what was._

_Scanning his surroundings, Harry quickly identified the staircase that- according to the vision he’d had in fourth year, at least- led up to the room where Voldemort dwelt while in the Riddle house. It may have been three years since Harry… acquired his information, for lack of a better term… but Harry doubted Voldemort would have changed the internal layout of this place that much._

_Whatever else you could say about Voldemort, he was consistent; if something worked, he wouldn’t change it._

_As he walked up the stairs, the cloak over his head, taking care in case he stepped on a creaking stair or something- there was nothing like that, fortunately- Harry kept his eyes fixed on the door in front of him, wand outstretched in case his target came out of it._

_If this fight had to start before Harry was ready for it, a quick attack might be the only chance he’d have to survive the ensuing struggle…_

_But, for once in the last few months, luck was on his side; his opponent didn’t come through the door._

_As he finally reached the top of the staircase, his target still apparently unaware of his presence, Harry took a deep breath as he checked his wand once more._

_This was it._

_The moment that, in a sense, his entire life had been building towards._

_Everything else?_

_It had only been practice at best._

_Taking a deep breath, Harry turned to face the door, his wand at his side, and entered the room before him._

_As he entered the room that he had only ever seen in his nightmares, Harry smiled in anticipation as he saw who was sitting in the throne before him, his head lowered as though he was dozing, although Harry was prepared to guess that the man was only trying to gather his energy; the loss of six fragments of your soul couldn’t be an easy thing to deal with._

_The man sitting in front of him was the man once known as Tom Marvolo Riddle._

_The ‘man’- for lack of a better term- now known to the wizarding world as Lord Voldemort._

_Judging by the otherwise spare condition of the room- and, indeed, the rest of the house- Harry was guessing that he’d cleared it of anything that he might want in the future, and was simply resting to gather his power to destroy the house once and for all._

_Even as Harry shrugged off the invisibility cloak and tossed it off to one side- he wanted this final battle to be face-to-face, as it seemed it was always meant to be- it was only as the door shut behind Harry that the man he’d come here to kill finally looked up, and Harry couldn’t restrain a brief grin from spreading across his face._

_“Hello there, Tom,” he said, as he raised his wand from where he’d been holding it at his side. Inwardly, of course, Harry was terrified, but right now confidence was one of his few possible defences; if he looked like he was sure of what he was doing, rather than having come mainly on impulse, there was less chance he’d be attacked._

_“I’d like to say it’s been a long time,” he continued, as Voldemort’s eyes widened as he took in the young man who was standing before him, “but quite frankly, I could kill you right now and never see you for the rest of my life, and I still wouldn’t have not seen you for as long as I would have liked.”_

_“How-” Voldemort began, stepping up sharply with an apparently incredulous expression on his face._

_“Did I get in here?” Harry asked, grinning slightly as he stared at his foe; it felt good to be the one surprising Voldemort, rather than the other way around. “Well, let’s just say I had help from an inside source and leave it at that.”_

_The grin faded as he held his wand out in front of him, staring directly at Voldemort with a determined expression on his face. “Now, we have two options; we can fight, or you can just let yourself die at last and we can call this the end of the matter.”_

_At Harry’s threat, Voldemort seemed to get over his initial shock; in a matter of seconds, his wand was clutched in his hand, held down at his side like Harry’s had been upon entering._

_“On the contrary, Harry,” he said, his red eyes narrowing as he stared at the young man who, according to prophecy, would someday defeat him, “there is a third option.”_

_“That being?” Harry retorted, a small grin on his face as though he regarded Voldemort as a slight joke._

_“I kill you,” Voldemort replied._

_As soon as those three words had left the Dark Lord’s mouth, the battle was on._

_As Voldemort raised his wand to point at Harry, the young wizard was already ready to act. Knowing he couldn’t hope to equal Voldemort’s raw magical power enough to cast a sufficiently strong Shield Charm for whatever spell Voldemort was about to use, with the reflexes born of his Quidditch training, Harry dived off to one side, watching as the purple energy blast that indicated the Impediment Jinx flew past him. Evidently Voldemort wanted his death to be a public thing, rather than this private confrontation, most likely to show the wizarding world that Harry could never have defeated him._

_“You would evade me rather than fight me, Harry?” Voldemort chuckled as the young wizard leapt to his feet, wand clutched tightly in his right hand as he stared at his adversary. “You disappoint me; your father at least had the courage to meet his end on his feet.”_

_“Well, I’m so sorry I don’t meet your expectations,” Harry stated bluntly._

_For a moment, the two of them just stared at each other, as though waiting for the other to slip up, before Harry raised his wand and yelled “REDUCTO!” He doubted he could ever summon the kind of concentrated hate that would be necessary to use the Killing Curse, but he could at least hurt Voldemort…_

_But nothing happened; waving his wand casually, Voldemort just watched Harry as a large chunk of the nearby wall tore free to position itself between Harry and Voldemort. The fragment of stone shattered as Harry’s spell struck it, the spell fading harmlessly into the air before it could even touch its intended target._

_“You’ll have to do better than that, Harry!” Voldemort yelled, laughing as he raised his own wand. “I have the power here! Stupefy!”_

_Once again, as the spell lashed towards him, Harry dived off to the side- this time in the opposite direction from his previous dive; no sense in creating a pattern- and rolled back onto his feet before pointing his wand at Voldemort and yelling “Expelliarmus!”_

_Unfortunately, this attempt was no more successful than his earlier attack. Once again, Voldemort simply waved his wand slightly before the spell could strike, and a piece of the wall intercepted Harry’s attempt to disarm his foe._

_“Harry, Harry, Harry…” Voldemort said, chuckling in a humourless manner as he stared at his long-time foe. “When will you learn that you cannot hope to defeat me in single combat? I have worked for more years than you have lived to become the most powerful and feared wizard in the world, and you?”_

_He glared contemptuously at Harry as he spoke, as though he wanted to make sure that Harry understood what he was being told. “You are just a weak, pathetic, mudblood-loving fool; you could never even hope to defeat me, no matter how hard you tried.”_

_Harry just shrugged at that._

_“Better being that than being an arrogant git who can’t accept that his time’s passed- assuming it ever was in the first place,” he retorted, as he stood up to glare at Voldemort once more. “I mean, hasn’t it ever occurred to you that if any of this crap you believed was accurate, you’d have won long ago? If muggle-borns are so… inferior, as you seem to think they are… to pure-bloods, then how come you haven’t just managed to take over the Ministry of Magic with just a few well-cast spells?”_

_Voldemort just rolled his eyes as he glared at Harry._

_“Do you find it easy to exterminate the world’s ants, Harry?” he asked, as the two of them began to circle around the room slightly, as though reacting to some subconscious stimulus. “I assure you, the same principle applies here.”_

_Harry tutted in mock despair as he looked back at his old foe._

_“That’s the best ‘excuse’ you can come up?” he said, rolling his eyes in exasperation at Voldemort’s pathetic justification for why he was taking so long if muggle-borns were so weak._

_“Can’t you just admit that you’re a pathetic waste of space with outdated ideas who’s never going to get anywhere in life, give up your pathetic excuse of a ‘crusade for purity’ peacefully, and leave it at that?” he continued, assuming a mockingly pleading tone to show Voldemort he was perfectly prepared to retaliate if Voldemort still wanted to fight._

_The glare in Voldemort’s eyes as he raised his wand once more told Harry all he needed to know; this guy was not going to take being taunted very well._

_“CRUCIO!” Voldemort yelled, as Harry only just managed to dive out of the way of the curse. Before Harry could come up with an effective counter-attack, Voldemort had fired another spell in his direction, followed closely by another, and another, and another…_

_Damnit! Harry thought to himself, as an Impediment Jinx once again barely missed him, forcing him to dive to the floor to avoid it. I need a little more time to come up with some kind of counter-attack…_

_Then he spotted a hole in the wall nearby._

_He didn’t hesitate; quickly leaping to his feet, Harry fired a quick series of rapid spells in Voldemort’s direction. Each one was blocked by random pieces of wall summoned into Voldemort’s path, of course, but Harry wasn’t actually trying to hit Voldemort; just keep him occupied long enough…_

_Then he reached his target. Diving through the hole- fortunately large enough to accommodate him- Harry hit the ground and crouched, out of sight of anyone on the other side, trying desperately to control his heavy breathing before Voldemort heard him._

_He needed time to come up with a decent plan of attack…_

_Behind the wall, he heard Voldemort chuckling._

_“Is this all you have to offer me, Harry?” he asked, as he apparently studied his surroundings; Harry didn’t hear his robes move, so Voldemort was at least apparently standing still. “You provided better sport when I fought you after I was reborn… Can you want it to end so soon? Come, then… it might even be painless… as I told you before, I have never died, so I cannot be sure…”_

_Despite himself, Harry rolled his eyes in frustration; this was just stupid, even for Voldemort. If only there was some way to disarm the bastard, he might be able to take that smirk off his opponent’s face…_

_Then it occurred to Harry._

_There was a way he could deprive Voldemort of his wand…_

_And, best of all, he would follow it up by attacking Voldemort in a manner that he doubted the ‘Dark Lord’ would ever suspect could be used against him._

_Here goes, Harry thought, taking a deep breath as he went over the plan in his mind one last time before acting. It’s… NOW!_

_Leaping through the whole, Harry dived forward, simultaneously going into a somersault as he hit the ground. At only a couple of feet away from his foe, Harry leapt back onto his feet, pointed his wand in Voldemort’s direction, and yelled out “REDUCTO!” one last time, with all his strength. Even if this didn’t go according to plan and Voldemort reacted differently, the bastard might at least be injured…_

_However, Voldemort’s reaction was just what Harry had suspected; instinctively, Voldemort raised his own wand to cast a Shield Charm, reacting just as he would have done when facing any opponent. Regardless of his own natural magical powers, when push came to shove, Voldemort wasn’t exactly the most physically able-bodied of men- he’d probably assumed that his mere reputation would be enough to make anyone reluctant to attack him at the kind of distance where actually moving to deal with the attack would be required- and it didn’t seem to even occur to him to try and dodge the attack if he could just use a Shield Charm._

_Of course, it didn’t turn out quite as Voldemort had expected; as soon as the Reductor Curse met the Shield Charm, Harry felt the familiar vibration in his wand, and watched with a small smile on his face as a gold beam of light once again linked his and Voldemort’s wands._

_As Voldemort stared at the sight before him in horror, apparently incapable for the moment to even think about breaking the connection, Harry smiled in gratitude as he heard the music that he had heard only occasionally in his life, but, each time, at a pivotal moment… phoenix song._

_It gave Harry hope._

_More than that; it gave him strength._

_The strength he needed to win this battle for all who had fallen to Voldemort in the past… the strength to avenge those friends and loved ones who had died for Harry himself, thus allowing him to reach this moment in time and end the Dark Lord’s reign of terror once and for all._

_He wouldn’t let them down._

_He couldn’t._

_As he and Voldemort began to rise into the air once more, Harry seized his moment; just as Voldemort seemed about to break the connection between the wands himself, Harry thrust his wand into the air, breaking the golden thread that had so briefly linked it to its brother, and the two combatants fell to the ground once more._

_Before Voldemort could recover enough from the shock to strike back once again, Harry had slipped his wand into his pocket- no sense in using it until he’d disarmed his foe- and charged forward, crashing into Voldemort with such force that the Dark Lord’s own wand was sent flying out of his hand._

_As Voldemort hit the floor with a loud crash, Harry quickly shifted his original position so that he sitting astride Voldemort, his legs pinning the Dark Lord to the ground as one hand clenched over Voldmort’s throat, the other holding his wand as it pointed into Voldemort’s face._

_As Voldemort stared incredulously up at Harry, as though unable to believe a mere boy could have pulled this off, Harry grinned mockingly at his foe._

_For once, he had the upper hand in a fight with the man who had killed his parents._

_“Ready to give up?” he asked teasingly, tightening his grip on Voldemort’s neck. “Because I’m warning you; keep this up, and you will not walk away alive.”_

_Roaring in rage, Voldemort lashed out with one hand in something that seemed to be a cross between a slap and a scratch, leaving three thin bloody lines on Harry’s cheek as he was thrown off to the side. Simultaneously, the Dark Lord leapt to his feet and began to run in the direction that his wand had flown, only to be halted by Harry grabbing his left ankle and yanking hard on it, sending Voldemort crashing to the ground once more._

_Barely even pausing for breath, Harry leapt back onto his feet, simultaneously slipping his wand into his pocket- he didn’t want to remind Voldemort about the wand right now- and stood above Voldemort, as the man formerly known as Tom Riddle got to his feet, gasping slightly as though the last attack had left him slightly winded._

_Not that Harry cared about that; as soon as Voldemort was standing, he lashed out with a powerful punch to Voldemort’s snake-like nose, sending the Dark Lord staggering back, dark red blood leaking from whatever passed for his nostrils after all that he seemed to have done to his face._

_Harry grinned in satisfaction at the sight of Voldemort clutching his nose in pain, his incredulous gaze switching between the young man standing before him and the blood that now stained his fingertips._

_“How do you like that for fighting back?” Harry chuckled, trying to sound more confident than he actually was. He’d never actually tried to fight an opponent using just his fists, of course. Back in primary school, he’d lacked the physical strength to really do anything against Dudley’s gang- assuming Vernon and Petunia hadn’t then proceeded to punish him for daring to attack their perfect son- and ever since coming to Hogwarts, magic had always been his weapon of choice if a fight had come up. If nothing else, the use of a wand meant that he didn’t need to be near his opponent to actually do any damage to him._

_But right now, up against Voldemort, who most likely had little to no experience in fighting an opponent who used his fists rather than his wand against a foe, Harry felt that, for once, he had the advantage._

_If nothing else, all those times he’d spent dodging Dudley’s fists and sneaking peeks at all those action movies Dudley insisted on watching while he’d lived at Privet Drive had to have been good for something, right?_

_As Voldemort started to look like he was preparing to recover, Harry struck once more, this time lashing out with his right leg to kick Voldemort in the stomach, striking his foe with such force that the Dark Lord literally doubled over in agony._

_“Have some more,” Harry growled, as Voldemort drew deep gasps for breath in front of him. Before his foe could regain his balance once more, Harry lashed out with a second punch and kick, the punch an uppercut that forced Voldemort into a standing position once more while the kick sent him flying off to the side. For a moment, Harry thought that was it, but then Voldemort got back to his feet, although there was now a faint trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth; Harry hoped he’d broken a tooth or something similar with that last kick._

_“COWARD!” Voldemort yelled at Harry, his red eyes once again looking as though they glowed even brighter than normal in his anger, in a manner that, as Daniel Jackson, Harry would come to associate with the Goa’uld. “Fight PROPERLY, damn you!”_

_“What; with magic?” Harry retorted, grinning slightly. “No offence, Tommy m’boy, but your reliance on magic doesn’t seem to be doing you much good right now; why should I stick to it when my current strategy’s working just fine?”_

_Roaring in rage, Voldemort charged towards the Boy Who Lived, one hand outstretched as though attempting to punch his foe in the chest, only for Harry to grab the arm in question and hurl Voldemort over his head…_

_Only for the Dark Lord to subsequently fly through the door that Harry had entered by, which had remained open since Harry entered. As Harry got to his feet as quickly as he could- he’d been forced to fall onto his back to effectively throw Voldemort over his body- he heard a brief scream of rage and denial as his long-time nemesis flew through the air, before the scream was terminated by a brief, loud crack._

_Hurrying to the door, Harry looked down the stairs, and winced at the sight before him; Voldemort was lying at the bottom of the stairs, his body slumped and his head twisted at an angle that clearly meant that his neck was broken, even given Harry’s own limited experience in such matters._

_As Harry watched, a slow green fire spread over Voldemort’s body, as though whatever power the ritual that had given him a new body had called upon was reclaiming what energy had been taken from it, now that it was no longer needed for the purpose it had been used for. For a brief moment, Harry thought he saw a dark flash leave the body… it almost seemed like a kind of ‘reverse-light’, for lack of a better term… but it soon vanished, leaving Harry doubting that he’d ever seen anything in the first place._

_Staring down at the faint burn marks that were the only indication there’d ever been anything there, Harry sighed._

_He’d done it._

_He’d won._

_It may have cost him and his friends a great deal more than they would have actually wanted to give, but they’d defeated Voldemort at long last._

_Now, all he needed to do was send Wormtail off to Azkaban, and that was it._

* * *

  
“Yikes,” Mitchell said, looking sympathetically at Daniel as he stood at the end of the table, pain evident in his eyes as he recounted the end of his 'final' fight with Voldemort. “First time you’d ever actually killed someone, huh?”

“Yeah… it was,” Daniel said, nodding slightly as he looked back at his teammates. “I’d fought Death Eaters in the past, of course, but Voldemort was the only one I ever fought who I actually wanted to kill; everyone else, I was just prepared to knock them out and let the Ministry handle them.”

“Daniel…” Sam said hesitantly, as she reached one with one hand to take one of his. When he didn’t pull away, she continued speaking. “From what you’ve told us about Voldemort… it seems clear that prison wouldn’t have stopped him for long. He’d already killed so many people… he would have gone on to kill more… and he was definitely prepared to kill you that time. You didn’t have a choice.”

Daniel nodded slightly.

“I know that, Sam,” he said, looking up at her as he spoke, a slightly grateful expression on his face for her thoughtful words. “And… well, since joining SG-1, I like to think I’ve come to cope with it a bit better; after all the other people I’ve had to kill in self-defence, I managed to put my feelings about killing Voldemort into the… proper context, for lack of a better term…”

“But it does not take away the self-loathing you felt when you had committed the action in the first place,” Teal’c said, looking at Daniel with his typically neutral expression on his face.

“Yeah…” Daniel said, nodding at Teal’c’s accurate assessment of his feelings on the matter. “That’s… pretty much it exactly, Teal’c.”

Once again, there was silence for a moment in the briefing room, and then Daniel continued his story, his voice sounding like he was trying hard not to start crying as he reached what had to be the most difficult part of his story yet. “After making sure there was nobody else in the Riddle House, I Apparrated back to Grimmauld Place…”


	10. Flashback: The Last Great Loss

As soon as Harry stepped through the door of Grimmauld Place, his senses, already sharp before the war after nearly a lifetime of trying to avoid Dudley’s gang, and now so sensitive that it was almost unbelievable, detected something wrong in the house.

_He couldn’t place exactly_ what _it was, of course- somebody there who shouldn’t be, something going_ on _that shouldn’t be, or something totally unexpected- but he was sure of one thing; things were_ not _good in this house._

_Quickly going over his possible options in his mind, Harry decided that the direct approach was probably the best in this situation. After all, nobody could have entered Grimmauld Place without him telling them where it was, so, if there_ was _anyone here who’d arrived since his departure, it could only be one of the other members of the Order of the Phoenix. With that in mind, not even Alastor ‘Mad-Eye’ Moody could worry that any noise Harry made could hardly be defined as ‘risky on the grounds that it could attract the enemy’s attention’. Even given Moody’s typical paranoia, there was no way for a potential enemy to gain access to the house in the first place, so it wasn’t exactly a serious concern for him right now._

“ _Hello?” Harry called, scanning the doors in the main hall of the house in an attempt to spot any sign of someone responding to his call. “Anyone there?”_

_Nothing._

_Wait… there_ was _something out there._

_Just above him, in an area that he recalled was one of the bedrooms, he could hear the slight sounds of footprints, as though someone- maybe two people- were struggling with each other in that room…_

_Harry didn’t hesitate; pulling out his wand, he tore towards the stairs, taking them two at a time as he reached the floor in question. Spinning around, he hurried towards the door to the room in question, barely even stopping to think as he kicked it open…_

_His eyes widening in horror at the sight before him, as Wormtail stood above Ginny, his feet positioned on either side of her as she clutched her mouth, a small trickle of blood coming from her lip as she raised her hand to her mouth, panic in her eyes as she looked up at Wormtail._

_Once again, Harry didn’t give himself time to think about it; raising his wand, he wordlessly cast the Disarming Spell, sending Wormtail flying into the nearby wall. As Harry watched, Wormtail collapsed to the ground once more, evidently unconscious; his forehead was bruised, but he was still breathing._

_Right now, Harry couldn’t care less about Wormtail, however; his concern was all for Ginny._

“Ginny _!” he yelled, sticking his wand into his pocket as he ran towards the fallen form of the girl he loved. As she turned to look at him, he sighed in relief; baring a black eye and a couple of small bruises, there didn’t seem to be any serious injuries on her._

“ _Uh…” she muttered, reaching out to place a hand on Harry’s shoulder as she hauled herself up to her feet. “H… Harry? You’re back?”_

“ _Yeah… I’m here…” Harry whispered, looking briefly over at Wormtail’s fallen body, rage evident on his face at what the_ bastard _had nearly done to Ginny, before he looked back at the beautiful young woman he held in his arms. “What_ happened _?”_

“ _After… after you left,” Ginny said, looking up at Harry with tears in her eyes, evidently still afraid of what Wormtail had nearly done to her, “he… he attacked me… tried to_ touch _me… he was insane… he kept on calling me ‘Lily’… he said that you were as good as dead the moment you left here… all he wanted was_ me _…”_

_Then, for a moment, the emotion and the terror of her recent experience seemed to overwhelm Ginny, and she simply collapsed into Harry’s shoulder once more, her body heaving with deep sobs as she remembered what the former Marauder had nearly done to her. For a short while, Harry just stood there, holding her in his arms as he glared angrily in Wormtail’s direction as he went over what he’d just been told._

_In the end, he supposed it wasn’t all that surprising that Wormtail seemed to have attacked Ginny because of her resemblance to his mother. Harry had spent some time talking with Remus over the last year or so, when the two of them had been able to spare some time in the search for the horcruxes and the fight against Voldemort, and Remus had mentioned that, on occasion, Wormtail had seemed to show a slightly greater interest in Lily than that of a simple ‘friend’._

_It hadn’t been anything especially serious, of course- according to Remus, there had been quite a few people who’d had feelings for Lily when they were in school, and they’d just assumed that Wormtail’s ‘feelings’ had faded when Lily started dating James. Hell, even_ Lupin _had admitted to having a slight crush on Lily himself at one point, but that had easily gone away after he saw how much James was interested in her; the way Lupin reasoned it, a man wouldn’t be prepared to put up with so many insults from one woman if he_ wasn’t _serious about her._

_However, after they’d discovered the truth about what had happened the night Voldemort killed Harry’s parents, Remus had begun to speculate that Wormtail’s actions had been more than partially motivated by jealousy of his friend’s relationship with the woman he had ‘loved’- or whatever he had felt for Lily- and he’d handed her over to Voldemort because he felt that, if_ he _couldn’t have her,_ nobody _could. It was a pathetic excuse, true, but, since Wormtail was a pathetic excuse of a human being_ anyway _, little details like that hardly mattered, as far as the two of them could see._

_Harry generally had tried not to think about it; the concept of_ Wormtail _having a thing for his_ mother _was just_ way _too disturbing for him to think about it on a long-term basis…_

_But, looking at Wormtail, and then at Ginny, he supposed he should have anticipated that Wormtail would go after Ginny to try and ‘live out’ his old fantasies; after all, she_ did _look more than slightly like his mother, just as he had been said to resemble his father on occasion._

_He supposed part of the reason he never really thought about that was that he only knew his mother from photographs; if he’d known her_ personally _, he supposed that a part of him might have not wanted to get involved with Ginny as it might have seemed like some kind of screwed-up psychological incest. However, as he’d never really_ known _his mother, that issue had never been a problem, and Harry had been content to just date Ginny without thinking about how much the two of them resembled his parents._

_For a time, Harry was content to just stand there, holding Ginny tenderly in his arms as she released her fear and shock at what had nearly happened to her, but, eventually, as Ginny calmed down, he stepped back to look at her, an apologetic expression in his eyes._

“ _I’m… I’m sorry,” he said, knowing that the words were inadequate, but knowing that they were also all that he could say. “If I hadn’t left him here, he wouldn’t have-”_

_Before he could finish, Ginny had placed a finger over his lips, glaring critically at him as she did so._

“ _Don’t even_ think _it, OK?” she said, staring at her boyfriend in a determined manner, despite the faint trace of tears that still glistened in the corners of her eyes.. “You had to stop Voldemort, and I told you I could handle myself if it came down to a fight; he took me by surprise and was a bit…_ tougher _… than I expected, that’s all.”_

_Then a thought occurred to her, and she looked curiously at Harry once again, her earlier fear apparently pushed aside in light of her recent thought. “You_ did _stop Voldemort, didn’t you?”_

“ _Yes,” Harry said, nodding briefly; no matter what else happened between them, he would_ never _tell Ginny how Voldemort had died._

_He didn’t regard himself as sexist, but he felt that there were just some things Ginny shouldn’t_ have _to know. Even for him, the memory of seeing Voldemort hurtling back through the air… striking the wall behind him… his neck snapping as cleanly as a dried stick…_

_He knew he would never forget it._

_He knew that a part of him would always hate himself for doing it, even as another, smaller part of him actually_ enjoyed _the memory of seeing his nemesis die…_

_He wouldn’t force Ginny to have to think about it as well._

“ _C’mon,” he said, indicating the door with a jerk of his head, anxious to stop any questions that she may have about the events in question. “Let’s just get out of here; I’ll send some aurors to take Wormtail away later.”_

_Ginny smiled in agreement at Harry’s assessment._

“ _Suits me,” she said, a grim smile on her face as she studied her surroundings. “I’m certainly_ never _coming back here myself…”_

Turning around, the two of them began to walk towards the stairs, Harry’s arm around Ginny’s waist, smiling slightly as he looked at the young woman beside him.

_He’d won._

_It had cost him a lot, he knew, but, in the end, he had, at last,_ won

_And, with Ginny beside him… as the two of them shared their lives together… made new memories to replace the bad ones that this bloody war had given them… he might actually be able to finally have some semblance of a normal life…_

_Then, as they were half-way down the stairs of Grimmauld Place, it happened._

“Expelliarmus _!” a voice yelled from behind them, a burst of red light striking Ginny in the back and sending her tumbling forward, her feet leaving the stairs from the force and shock of the curse striking her back…_

“ _GINNY!” Harry screamed, desperately dashing forward as Ginny fell, arms outstretched as he hoped and prayed he’d be in time…_

_But he wasn’t._

_He’d taken just a few seconds too long to react, shocked as he was by what had just taken place before his eyes._

_Just as Voldemort had, mere minute ago, Ginny Weasley hit the bottom of the stairs head first, and a loud crack sounded throughout the halls of Grimmauld Place._

“ _NNNNOOOOOO!” Harry screamed as he saw the body lying before him, blood already spreading from where she had hit the ground head-first, a scream of denial and rage that gave voice to his thoughts about more than just this one death._

_For one timeless, agonising moment of loss, his scream wasn’t_ o _nly at the loss of Ginny Weasley, the first and only woman he had ever truly loved, taken from him due to some bastard who couldn’t get over being rejected over two_ decades _ago…_

_It was at the loss of Ron Weasley, the young man who’d become like a brother to him over the seven years they had known each other, and had died trying to help Harry achieve his ‘destiny’…_

_It was at the loss of Albus Dumbledore, his mentor and guide no matter what mistakes he may have made in his decisions about Harry’s life, killed by someone he had thought he could trust after trying to help Harry find a horcrux…_

_It was at the loss of Sirius Black, the father/brother figure who had been in Harry’s life for far too short a time, and had died because Harry was foolish enough to walk into a trap that Voldemort had set for him…_

_But, most of all, it was a scream of rage and frustration at the world that had forced him to put up with all this crap from practically the moment he was born, without even giving him a choice in the matter._

_As Harry’s scream died down, he heard a long, slightly wheezing laugh coming from the top of the stairs, and his grief instantly vanished, to be replaced by cold, hard rage._

_Only_ one _person could have done this._

_Only one person was in a position to do this thing to Harry, for no other purpose than to make him suffer, when they were still_ inside _Grimmauld Place._

_Only one person could be such an absolute_ bastard _as to do this to Harry when he had nothing left to lose and precious little to gain…_

“WORMTAIL! _” he roared, drawing his wand and charging up the stairs, taking them_ three _at a time on this occasion, to punch Wormtail directly in the face with a powerful left hook that sent the older wizard staggering back in shock, as his wand slipped from his hands to hit the ground beside him._

_Harry didn’t even stop to think about what he was doing; tossing his wand towards the nearby wall, to enraged to even think about using spells, he punched Wormtail in the face once more, barely even registering the pain in his knuckles, unused as they were to contact like this._

_Compared to the pain in his heart he felt at the knowledge of Ginny’s loss, it might as well have been nothing._

“ _YOU_ BASTARD _!” Harry yelled, as he launched punch after punch at Wormtail’s face, sending the rat animagus staggering back further and further with each blow. “YOU_ KILLED _HER! I_ LOVED _HER, WORMTAIL; I ACTUALLY_ LOVED _HER! DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT_ MEANS _, YOU WALKING PIECE OF_ CRAP? _WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO LOSE SOMEONE WHO’S PRACTICALLY A_ PART _OF YOU, YOU LOVE THEM SO MUCH?_

“ _AND_ YOU _!” Harry continued, changing tactics as he grabbed Wormtail by the robe, hauled him off his feet, and began to hit him off the walls on either side of them, his vengeful rage tempered by the glee as he felt Voldemort’s lackey beg for him to stop. “YOU_ TOOK HER AWAY FROM ME! _SHE’S_ GONE _FOREVER BECAUSE OF_ YOU

“ _FILTHY!” he yelled, as he punched Wormtail in the chest, sending him doubling over as he gasped for breath._

“ _WORM-EATING!” he added, as he hit Wormtail in the head, sending him collapsing to his knees as he gasped for air._

“SCUM _!” he finished, as he stood over Wormtail, glaring at his foe._

“ _P-please…” Wormtail whispered, blood trickling from a corner of his mouth as he looked up at Harry; it looked as though Harry’s initial blows had dislodged a tooth or two. “S-stop… i-it h-_ hurts _…”_

“ _It_ HURTS _?” Harry yelled, yanking Wormtail’s head close to his own so he could yell directly at the man who’d just killed the woman he loved. “Did you think it wouldn’t hurt Ginny when you_ KILLED _her like that? Did that thought stop_ YOU _from KILLING her back then? WHY SHOULD IT STOP ME-”_

_Then, mid-sentence, Harry stopped speaking._

_For a moment, he found himself remembering the last time he’d been present at a scene when Wormtail could have been killed._

_For a moment, Harry was once again thirteen years old, standing in front of Wormtail in the Shrieking Shack as Sirius and Remus pointed their wands at their former friend, preparing to kill him for what he had done all those years ago, when he gave the location of Lily and James’ hiding place to Voldemort…_

_And, in that moment, he remembered the reason why he hadn’t wanted the two of them to kill Wormtail back then._

“I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing it because I don’t reckon my dad would’ve wanted his best friends to become killers- just for you _.”_

Would Ginny have wanted this _? Harry asked himself, releasing Wormtail from his left hand to stare at the hand in question, flexing the fingers as he thought about it._ Would she have wanted _me_ to do this

_It didn’t take long; he knew the answer almost at once._

_She wouldn’t have wanted it._

_No matter what the provocation was, she wouldn’t have wanted Harry to become a murderer for_ her _…_

_And, looking at Wormtail once again, Harry knew that this wasn’t the way it should be._

_Wormtail wasn’t worth sacrificing his morals- more, he wasn’t worth tarnishing Ginny’s memory- for the sake of the momentary satisfaction Harry would feel at his death._

_If he’d been forced to kill Wormtail in self-defence, Harry might have been able to excuse his actions, just like he felt that a part of himself would someday get over having caused the death of Voldemort._

_But killing him like this… in a fit of blind rage because of what he’d done, when the man- if you could call him that, of course- was so terrified and battered that he couldn’t even fight_ back _…_

_Harry couldn’t dishonour Ginny’s memory like that._

_Glaring at Wormtail once more for good measure, Harry harshly threw his parents’ former friend back to the ground, before walking backwards, facing Wormtail all the while, to pick up his wand and point it at Wormtail._

“ _Get up,” he said simply to the trembling animagus. “Under my authority as_ de facto _leader of the Order of the Phoenix, I am arresting you for the murder of Ginerva Molly Weasley, and sentence you to be sent to Azkaban prison for your crime.”_

“ _Wh-what?” Wormtail muttered, staring incredulously up at Harry through his bruised and bleeding face._

“ _It’s as I said when Sirius and Remus had the chance to kill you,” Harry stated, glaring coldly down at the man who had once been his father’s friend. “My dad wouldn’t have wanted them to become murderers for him; Ginny wouldn’t want_ me _to become a murderer for_ you _.”_

_Reaching down, he grabbed Wormtail’s arm and hauled the animagus to his feet, glaring angrily at the man who had been more rat than man even_ before _he spent twelve whole years hiding away in his rat form._

“ _Just be grateful I’m not a believer in the death penalty,” he said, glaring critically at Wormtai. “If I was, you’d probably be marching off to your_ execution _, rather than just your imprisonment.”_

_Wormtail didn’t respond to that; he just stayed silent as Harry walked him out of the house, his wand pointing at Wormtail’s back as he glared at the man who’d taken so much from him._

It was only after they stepped outside the house that things went wrong; before Harry could realise what was happening, Wormtail- who seemed to suddenly be in better shape than he’d appeared mere moments ago- rammed an elbow into Harry’s chest. More from surprise than anything else, Harry doubled over as the elbow struck him, before he suddenly found himself shoved to the ground by his foe. Instantly, Harry moved to stand up once again, but his attempt was stopped by a sharp, painful kick to his chest, forcing all the air out of his lungs in one rapid moment.

“ _Sorry,_ Potter _,” Wormtail said, glaring at Harry as he stood above the temporarily-breathless Boy Who Lived, blood staining his teeth as he grinned wickedly at his stunned and gasping foe, “but I am_ not _interested in going to Azkaban!”_

_Then, there was a loud popping sound, and Wormtail was gone, having apparated away to some other location, leaving Harry gasping for more air to fill his suddenly-depleted lungs.  
_

* * *

  
“So, lemme guess, you caught your breath, got back to your feet, tore after that guy, captured him, and sent him off to Azkaban prison once more?” Mitchell asked, looking inquiringly at Daniel as the archaeologist briefly paused in his story. “And now he’s back, apparently _really_ hacked off for what you did to him, and you just totally lost it when you saw him out once again because you’d wanted him to stay in jail for the rest of his life?”

Looking at Mitchell for a moment, Daniel said nothing, as though trying to decide what his response should be, until, finally, he sighed and shook his head.

“Actually…” he said, as though still trying to figure out an alternate way of phrasing this, before he gave up and decided to just say it. “I just lay there for a few moments, trying to catch my breath, and then just apparrated off to the outskirts of Hogwarts so that I could be alone.”

“What?” Sam said, staring incredulously at Daniel, unable to believe what she had just heard. “You _let him go_? But he-”

“I _know_ what he did, Sam; I just couldn’t really bring myself to truly _care_ about doing something to him because of it,” Daniel explained, a blank, almost neutral expression on his face. Either he literally didn’t feel any emotion about the current topic- and Sam didn’t believe that for a moment- or- which she found more likely- he had so _many_ emotions about his current topic that he couldn’t bring himself to let them out, otherwise he’d just start having a near-complete emotional breakdown and be unable to stop himself.

“You’ve got to understand…” he said, pausing for a moment as though trying to decide how to phrase this before finally continuing. “I was _tired_ of it all. I’d spent the last six or so years with the shadow of Voldemort looming over me; ever since I’d faced him when he tried to get the Philosopher’s Stone, there’d always been a part of me worried that, the next time I woke up, he’d be standing there over my bed, just waiting for me to wake up so he could see my reaction to him winning…

“When he actually got his body back- killing a young man who could have been a good friend if I’d had the time to know him- it just got even worse, knowing that he now had several followers who’d be perfectly willing to just kill or capture me for no other reason than to please him. I always felt like a part of me could _never_ spare the time to properly relax and just let me be myself, because if it wasn’t worrying about the Death Eaters who’d be trying to kill me, than it was the people who expected me to be some kind of big hero when all I wanted was to be a normal boy…”

He sighed deeply once again, before slumping back in his chair to stare at his friends. “I just couldn’t see the _point_ in keeping on trying once Voldemort was gone. After all, what would killing Wormtail have accomplished? Even if I managed to kill him, Ginny would still be dead…”

Then, for a moment, Sam was surprised to see a corner of Daniel’s mouth turn up in a slight smile, as though at some slightly pleasant memory, as he looked at the rest of the team. “Besides, as it was, left alive, Wormtail would be constantly on the run; with the advantage his rat form had once given him now gone, he wouldn’t even be able to stay with a wizarding family to keep up-to-date with the news, and, the state he was in, he would have been hard-pressed to find a _muggle_ family that would be willing to take him…”

“I see,” Teal’c said simply, as he looked at Daniel. “And it was then that you made the decision to depart the wizarding world and become Daniel Jackson?”

“Well… not quite,” Daniel said, shaking his head slightly as he looked back at Teal’c. “Firstly, I went back to St Mungo’s- in secret, of course; I didn’t want anyone to see me going in and attract any questions- to see my last friend for the last time…”


	11. From Harry Potter to Daniel Jackson

_An hour later, as Harry was sitting by Hermione’s bedside, watching her as his eyes continually flicked anxiously in the direction of the door, as though he expected somebody to come charging in to look for a him at any moment, his last true friend- the other members of the Order were so much older than him he still found it hard to think of them as actual_ friends _\- slowly stirred, and, at a pace that was too slow to be normal, opened her eyes to look at him._

_“H… Harry?” she asked him, an uncertain tone in her voice as she squinted at him; evidently, her vision still wasn’t quite back to normal. “Wh… what happened?”_

_“Hey, Hermione,” he said simply, as he reached over to place a hand on hers. “You’ll be glad to know your efforts to kill Nagini weren’t in vain. Ginny sliced her head off while you… kept her occupied, and I took Voldemort out just a short while ago, while you were still unconscious._

_Despite the darkness of the event in question, Harry couldn’t stop a slight chuckle coming from his lips. “The stupid twat broke his neck when he tried to hit me while we were fighting.”_

_Hermione smiled at that, which at least confirmed Harry’s own feelings about the matter were justified; somehow, the idea of Voldemort, a half-blood who’d devoted his entire life to just learning how to fight with_ magic _, dying of something as mundane as a broken neck, was rather amusing…_

_“Good…” she said simply, her eyes slowly closing as she began to lie back in her bed. Just as her head touched the pillow, however, a thought seemed to occur to her, and she slowly pushed herself upwards once again to look at her friend. “Where’s Ginny?”_

_Harry sighed as he looked back at her. He’d been hoping this could wait until she was stronger, but he’d never been able to actually lie to Hermione about something that might directly concern her- telling her he was coming along with the golden egg in the Tournament was_ one _thing, but this was a_ totally _different situation- and he wasn’t going to start lying to her now._

_Especially not when he was about to make the most important decision in his entire life…_

_“Hermione…” he began, before taking a deep breath and saying the two words that, in his mind, would make the earlier incident fact once and for all. “Ginny’s dead.”_

_“_ What _?” Hermione said, sitting up sharply at that comment only to regret it when her head rapidly began to ache as she spoke, forcing her to fall back onto the bed as she clutched her head._

_“Pettigrew,” Harry stated, by way of explanation. “I left the bastard with Ginny in Grimmauld Place after he told me where Voldemort was- took every precaution I could think of to stop him getting into a position where he could hurt her- and he went and_ killed _her when I got back. He got away before I could take him out and take him to Azkaban, and… I just didn’t have the_ strength _to follow him…”_

_Sighing once again, he bowed his head, staring at the floor below him, his shoulders slumped in despair as he recalled the last fresh image of Ginny that would ever be in his memory, as she lay at the bottom of the stairs of Godric’s Hollow, blood flowing around her head, mixing in with her red hair as it lay around her like a halo…_

_It was then that Harry made up his mind._

_He’d been thinking about it for a while now, but this memory made up his mind for him._

_He couldn’t just stay here and have to cope with the memories that he’d be faced with for the rest of his life._

_“I’m done,” he said, standing up from beside the bed, a grim expression on his face._

_“W… what?” Hermione asked, looking in confusion in his direction from where she lay in the bed._

_“I can’t do this any more, Hermione,” Harry said, as he turned to look at her, knowing this wasn’t the best time to say what he had to say, but at the same time knowing he had to say it now if he was ever going to say it; he’d never be able to get away once the news of the previous night became public. “I can’t remain in a world where I’ll always be known for something I can’t even remember doing. I’ve beaten Voldemort, but I’ve lost Ginny… Ron’s dead… Dumbledore’s dead… hell, even_ Sirius _is gone…”_

_Reaching one hand out, he leaned against the wall with that arm, bowing his head in despair as he recalled the past. “There’s just not enough_ reasons _for me to stay in the wizarding world any more…”_

_Looking back at Hermione, he sighed again as he took her hand in his, the better to ensure she was paying attention to him as he spoke. “Besides, if I stay here, I’ll never even have a moment’s peace from the press, especially after_ this _. Forget the hassles of having a_ ton _of Romilda Vane wannabes chasing after me all the time, trying to tie me to a bed and have their wicked way with me; how can I even be sure someone will hire me for a job because they really think I’ll do it well, rather than just as some kind of marketing gimmick- you know, ‘I’ve got the Boy Who Lived working for me’…”_

_He sighed once again as he stared at Hermione before standing up once more. “It’s just… it’d be too hard to stay here without_ her _to make it easier, you know?” he said, as he looked at Hermione apologetically._

_“I want to be free to make my own way in life, Hermione. Having everyone I apply for a job with falling over themselves to make it easy for me… that’s no way to live. I don’t want to go somewhere where everyone has all these expectations of me just because of who I am; I want to be hired because my employers actually think I’ll do a good job based on my_ credentials _, rather than my_ name _.”_

_“But… what will you_ do _?” Hermione asked, looking in confusion and despair at her friend. A part of her wanted to ask why he was telling her this_ now _, of all times, but at the same time she knew that he didn’t have much choice; if he waited too long to leave, news would get out about the defeat of Voldemort, and then he’d_ never _be able to get away from it all without someone managing to figure out what was going on…_

_Harry shrugged at her question._

_“I’ve been spending a bit of time with Bill recently, when I had time off; Egyptian history sounds pretty interesting, so maybe I’ll see about something in Egyptology,” he said, before a half-smile flickered across his lips. “Come to think of it, maybe something in languages would be worthwhile as well. I’ve been finding it pretty simple to learn them since I actually learned about my Parseltongue abilities; maybe my brain’s just better suited to coping with that kind of stuff these days…”_

_Shaking his head as to clear away those pleasant thoughts, he looked back at Hermione, a solemn expression on his face once more, as though he was almost resigned to the consequences of his decision. “All I know is, I can’t stay here any more, Hermione. I’m sorry, but I_ have _to go.”_

_“Harry…” Hermione began, looking at him sadly as he stood up. The young wizard was about to turn for the door, but, at the last minute, he turned back to look at Hermione and, leaning over, planted a brief, brotherly kiss on her cheek._

_“Goodbye, Hermione,” he said, a small smile on his face as the two of them looked at each other for the last time, the faint trace of tears in both their eyes as they recalled all that they had been through together to get to this point. “I’ll try and stay in touch… send a card or something, you know. Just… don’t look for me, please.”_

_Hermione opened her mouth as though she was about to protest, but Harry held up a hand in a halting gesture._

_“Please,” he said, as he stared back at her, a single tear trickling down his left cheek, as he stared pleadingly at the young woman who had become like a sister to him, as he prepared to walk out of her life forever. “I… I don’t_ want _to be found any more. I want to be left alone.”_

_And with that, Harry James Potter, the Boy Who Lived, turned around, walked out of the door of the ward that held one of his few remaining friends, and vanished from the wizarding world.  
_

* * *

  
“From there, it was relatively straightforward,” Daniel continued, looking around at his friends as he spoke, trying to conceal the pain he felt when he thought about his old friends. “Using some contacts I’d made in my search for the horcruxes- a couple of Ministry officials who were more interested in helping me as a _person_ than trying to use me as a _symbol_ \- I was able to set up a false background for myself as Daniel Jackson, and moved to America so that I’d have a better chance of escaping discovery; the wizarding community over here isn’t as established as it is in Britain. Thanks to the knowledge of languages I’d acquired during my time with the Order, coupled with my new-found interest in Egyptian history, I made a significant impression in an American high school- fortunately, I looked rather young for my age at the time- and, after receiving a few scholarship offers, soon found myself enrolled in the University of Chicago, and…”

He shrugged slightly. “Well, after that whole incident with Osiris taking Sarah as a host, you all already know the essential details about _that_ point in my life.”

For a moment, General Landry and the rest of SG-1 could only stare at Daniel incredulously, apparently unable to believe that he could have kept something so incredible a secret for all that time. Putting aside the fact that he was a _wizard_ , there was also all the loss he’d suffered in that time, apparently just because he was who he was…

“Hold on a minute,” Mitchell said, sitting forward in his chair to look at Daniel critically. “Not that I’m doubting your story- after everything we’ve just seen, that would be pretty dumb- but there’s a few details about this whole thing that don’t quite make sense, and I’d appreciate some answers.”

“Such as?” Daniel said, looking over at Mitchell.

“For one thing, if your parents were a witch and a wizard who got killed by that ‘Moldiewart’ guy when you were _one_ , how come that incident with the Gamekeeper on P7J-989 showed you a _memory_ of them being archaeologists who were crushed by a falling capstone when you were _eight_?” Mitchell asked, looking critically at Daniel.

The archaeologist, however, didn’t seem that fazed by Mitchell’s statement; his only immediate response was a small, sad smile.

“That’s fairly straightforward, really,” he explained, as he looked at Mitchell. “You remember that incident a short while ago, when you were given someone else’s memory?”

Mitchell could only nod slightly at that; even if he no longer remembered killing an innocent woman by accident, he still remembered how he’d _felt_ about it until he’d been fully cleared, and that was often enough to leave him feeling sick to his stomach about the whole affair.

“Well, I essentially had something similar done to me; it just wasn’t somebody _else’s_ memory, it was a totally original one,” Daniel explained, as he looked around at the others. “When I left the wizarding world, I knew that there was always the chance someone could find me, and I wanted to take every precaution I could to stop that from happening. I already knew that it was possible to alter memories, so I contacted the wizard… ‘witness protection program’, for lack of a better term- I can’t recall what they actually called it- and, using a disguise to avoid attracting too much attention, had them stick a bunch of fake memories in my head about a life as Daniel Jackson. Some wizards are capable of, essentially, reading minds- a method known as _legilimency_ , to be specific- and the memories would stop any wizard who encountered me from realising who I was; even if he recognised me, the examination of my memories would make him think that the resemblance to Harry Potter was just a coincidence. It also helped me catch up with my language abilities; the spell kind of ‘advanced’ my knowledge of the languages I’d been learning already, and left me with a significantly greater talent for languages. I’d continue to improve my talents in college, of course, but the information I received with the memories was necessary to create a greater… _difference_ … between Harry and Daniel; Harry never really knew all that many languages, although since they weren’t part of the school curriculum at Hogwarts that was hardly a major issue.”

Sam opened her mouth to ask a question, but Daniel raised a hand to stop her. “No, the memories I received didn’t _replace_ my old ones; my original memories are all still in my head, and I remember both the real ones and the false ones. It’s just… well, the false memories are… _in front_ of my real ones, I guess is the best way of describing it, so anyone trying to read my memory would only see the memories of my life as Daniel, rather than my life as Harry. Oh, and in case you’re wondering why I gave myself such an… unpleasant childhood experience… I deliberately asked for something traumatic to have taken place to give me a reason not to talk about my past; if I didn’t have something that I’d _want_ to talk about, I wouldn’t actually have a reason to lie to anybody when I was discussing my past.”

“Uh… actually, I wasn’t going to ask about how the memory thing worked; it would have been my next question,” Sam said, as she looked critically at Daniel. “What I _was_ going to ask is, if the Jacksons never actually existed, why did you sound so _sincere_ when you asked the Gamekeeper to stop his recreation of their deaths? Was it just an _act_ ,” she continued, sounding for a moment as harsh as any Goa’uld as she stared at Daniel, as though unable to believe he could lie so much that he even faked his reaction to a significantly _traumatic_ experience, “or was it something else?”

For a moment, Daniel seemed as though he wasn’t going to reply, and then he sighed and looked directly at Sam.

“Well, even if I _consciously_ know that it wasn’t real,” he said, as he looked at Sam, “that doesn’t change two facts.”

“These facts being?” Teal’c asked, studying his friend curiously.

“Well… firstly, I have no actual _memory_ of the death of my… well, my _real_ parents,” Daniel explained, as he looked around the table. “After all, they died when I was barely one year old; all I recall is some vague recollections of their voices, and I only remember that because of… an encounter I’d rather forget.” For a moment, Sam looked like she was about to ask what he meant by that, but then she saw the expression on his face- this topic was evidently causing him a great deal of pain as it _was_ \- and decided against it.

For all he’d omitted when talking to them, it was becoming increasingly clear that he hadn’t done it because he didn’t _trust_ the rest of SG-1 to keep it secret; he just hadn’t _wanted_ to remember.

“Anyway,” Daniel continued, placing one hand on a chair as though to give himself the strength necessary to continue, “one of the explanations for why I felt so strongly about that memory is probably that, when the false memories were implanted, the ones of the _fake_ death of the Jacksons ended up becoming inextricably connected to the _real_ death of my parents…”

“And when you saw that recreation taken from the _false_ memories, it was like you were watching the death of your real parents, since you never actually saw _them_ die in the first place?” Mitchell asked, looking inquiringly at Daniel.

“Yeah…” Daniel said, nodding slightly before he looked at his commanding officer and sighed. “Of course, there _is_ another reason…”

“Which is?” General Landry put in, looking inquiringly at Daniel.

“Well… you know how I said I had memories of my life as Daniel Jackson implanted in my mind?” Daniel asked. Landry nodded, and Daniel continued. “Well… I got memories of a childhood with the Jacksons as well. It was pretty much everything you’d expect of a life with a pair of archaeologists- Claire teaching me hieroglyphics and singing me Egyptian lullabies when I couldn’t sleep on the digs, Melbourne letting me excavate a statue all by myself and praising me when I spotted a hidden door that everyone else had missed…”

For a moment, Daniel paused, his mind lost in his recollections of the past- whether real or implanted, nobody could be sure- and then looked back at Landry, as though a part of him was reluctant to look at his teammates until he had finished what he was saying now. “Given a choice between eight years of a life like that, no matter how badly it ended, and a life where I spent about ten years being forced to sleep in a cupboard and being called everything from ‘boy’ to ‘freak’ by people who were meant to be my _relatives_ , is it any _wonder_ I prefer to think of my first eight years with the Jacksons as being my _real_ childhood, and the Dursleys just a temporary family I had to put up with for only a _couple_ of years before I went to Hogwarts?”

Nobody could answer that.

They didn’t need to.

Daniel just nodded slightly as he looked at them all, evidently feeling that words were unnecessary.

“Exactly,” he said simply, as he looked at his friends. “I generally try and think of my life prior to the University of Chicago as being a mix of my two sets of memories; the Jacksons for the first eight years of my life, and then seven years at Hogwarts, with some of my more pleasant sets of foster parents in between the two.”

There was silence in the room for a moment, as SG-1 and General Landry took in what they had just been told, and then Sam looked up at Daniel once again.

“What about Nick?” she asked, looking curiously at her friend. “Where does _he_ fit into all this? I mean, was he _actually_ your grandfather, or was he just somebody you knew who _posed_ as your grandfather?”

“Well, it’s a bit of both, really,” Daniel explained, as he looked over at Sam. “He’s not my _biological_ grandfather, but he married my maternal grandmother when my mother and my aunt were still very young. However, he was away a lot on digs, so he didn’t really spend much time with my parents; I sometimes think he wasn’t even fully aware that they were _magical_. Anyway, he was away a lot when my parents had me and when they died, to the extent that he barely even seemed aware of the fact that I was living with the Dursleys; my grandmother had died some years ago, so he’d found increasingly less reasons to come home, especially since the Dursleys didn’t like him that much anyway.”

“But… what about him not wanting to adopt you?” Sam asked, looking at Daniel in confusion. “I mean, based on what he was willing to tell us, it sounded like he was actually there for your parents’ _funeral_ ; how does that tie into your _real_ life if those memories are all false?”

Daniel sighed slightly. “Well… that’s a _bit_ more complicated to explain- I’m not entirely sure how it happened myself- but the simple reason is that, after spending so much time being either away or in that mental care facility, when he learned about me, he… couldn’t take that he’d missed so much of his grandson’s life, so he kind of... created a ‘fantasy’ life where he knew about me from the beginning, based on what I told him about my life with Mel and Claire. In the end, since it didn’t seem like telling the truth was doing any good, and the staff seemed to think it would be easier for him if he actually had someone from the outside that he could relate to…”

He shrugged slightly once again, this time in a more awkward manner as he looked at his teammates. “I know it probably wasn’t the best thing for him to fall into that kind of fantasy world on a long-term basis, but… well, he seemed to need _something_ to hold on to in the outside world, no matter what it was. I… _tweaked_ my false memories slightly to accommodate his presence- it wasn’t that hard, really; once they’ve been implanted it’s a straightforward matter to rewrite them slightly- and I let him believe what he wanted to believe.”

Noting Sam’s questioning look in his direction- she, unlike the rest, knew what Nick had said to Daniel after the funeral- Daniel shrugged slightly.

“He wasn’t perfect,” he said to his friends by way of explanation, “but, unlike the Dursleys, he never _hated_ me; he just couldn’t manage to find the time for me.”

For a moment, there was silence throughout the room as the rest of SG-1 contemplated all that their friend had said to them, before the silence was broken by a slightly cough.

“ _Anyway_ ,” General Landry said, looking directly at the various members of his frontline team for a moment before looking back at Daniel, “as fascinating as your personal history has been, Doctor Jackson, I feel we should get back to the main issue at hand at the present moment; what connection does the ‘Voldemort’ you encountered on your mission have with the man you killed two decades ago, and what can we do to fight him?”

Daniel sighed in frustration at that comment, a look of slight self-recrimination on his face as he looked at Landry, evidently wishing he could give the SGC commander a better answer than the one he had at present.

“As to the first one… I don’t know,” he said simply. “He’s gathered Voldemort’s old followers, and he certainly _looks_ like Voldemort, but at the same time, he’s clearly being controlled by a Goa’uld, and Voldemort’s body, as I told you, was destroyed when he died. As far as what the connection is between them, I’m as confused as the rest of you.”

For a moment, he paused, looking for a moment like he wanted to just get up and leave, but simultaneously knew that he had to say what he had to say.

He’d been ‘running’- even if he didn’t think of it like that- from his past for far too long.

It was time for him to face his past once again.

“For the second…” he said, before taking a deep breath as he looked at his friends, before finally saying the words he’d never thought he’d say. “We have to go back to England and contact the Ministry of Magic and the Order of the Phoenix; we can probably do a good job against the Death Eaters with our normal weapons, but some people with experience in this kind of thing would _definitely_ be helpful.”

As he spoke, Daniel kept his eyes fixed on General Landry, willing the man to understand why he was suggesting this, why they would need help in tackling this situation, why, on this occasion, the SGC alone _couldn’t_ be enough…

And, finally, Landry nodded.

“OK; I’ll arrange transportation for the four of you to go to Britain,” he said, as he looked at SG-1 before looking back at Daniel, who was looking at Landry as though he wanted to say something. “It may be a different culture, Doctor Jackson, but I doubt an entire government is going to send a detachment of the local military all the way over here without you being able to provide some kind of proof of your claims. If they can read minds, as you say they can, I acknowledge you might be enough, but the more views on a situation like this the better, I think.”

Daniel remained silent for a moment, as though he was thinking about what Landry had just said to him, and finally nodded.

“Excellent,” Landry said, as he stood up to look around at the rest of SG-1. “I’ll sort your transportation out; if all goes well, you’ll be on a plane to Britain this time tomorrow.”

Despite the dangers of their current situation, and the story he’d just told the others, Daniel couldn’t help but smile at the thought of what was awaiting them.

He may have left the wizarding world behind all those years ago, but he’d tried to keep up-to-date with the news of major events in it. Of course, he’d cancelled his subscription at the beginning of the year- he’d rather _not_ have to explain why he was having a newspaper sent to Atlantis, and he’d never managed to get around to sending off for a new subscription after that whole thing with Vala that stopped him boarding the _Daedalus_ on its trip to Atlantis…

But still, he doubted the situation would have changed _that_ much in the last few months.

And, if it _was_ still the same, asking for help might prove to be far easier than any of the others had even suspected…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The theory about why Daniel reacted so strongly to his vision of the Jacksons’ deaths in ‘The Gamekeeper’ was created by the _very_ talented MaureenT, and I am grateful for her input.


	12. Into the Ministry of Magic

General Landry was as good as his word; barely thirty hours after the conversation in the main briefing room of the SGC, all four members of SG-1 were on a plane to Britain, the essentials of their belongings packed as they waited to arrive at their destination. Landry had been willing to arrange private transport, but Daniel had refused. He didn’t want to attract too much attention to SG-1’s visit to America, in case certain government officials (Unfortunately, the ‘death’ of ex-Vice President Robert Kinsey didn’t automatically mean the SGC’s politics-related problems were solved, as the incident with Khalek had proven all too well) tried to find out what was going on and stumbled across stuff he didn’t want them to know.

As far as Daniel was concerned, the secrecy of the wizarding world was still paramount; like knowledge of the Stargate itself, the world just wasn’t ready for magic to become public knowledge, even among the upper reaches of the government itself. Hell, he was doubtful it was even ready to be _private_ knowledge; it was why he’d declined to tell anyone but the ‘top brass’ of the SGC about his past for the moment…

“Daniel?” Sam’s voice said from off to one side, breaking through his train of thought. “Are you all right?”

Shaking his head to break off his train of thought, Daniel glanced over at Sam, once again reflecting how strange it was to see all four of the current SG-1 in casual clothing. Given that the Ori had so far _not_ reached Earth yet, there’d been little need for missions in other parts of the world since Mitchell had joined the team, and, despite the fact that the new ‘commander’ (Even if it was more of a title than anything else) was fitting in well, none of the team yet felt comfortable with the idea of spending a day off with him.

It may have been over a year since he’d been put in charge of the SGC, and from there put in charge of Homeworld Security, but part of each of the other three members of SG-1 still missed Jack O’Neill’s presence at those outings…

Still, at the moment, Jack wasn’t here and all four of the current SG-1 line-up were out of uniform, and grateful for the opportunity; military fatigues could easily get uncomfortable no matter how much the designer tried to make them otherwise. Daniel was wearing blue jeans, a blue-and-cream checked long-sleeved shirt and a brown leather jacket, Sam had chosen jeans and a dark red top, Mitchell was in black trousers, black T-shirt and a dark green jacket (Sam had jokingly reminded him that he wasn’t on camouflage operations right now) and Teal’c was wearing his familiar floppy-brimmed hat, along with a short-sleeved shirt and jeans, all in a dark blue colour.

Quite frankly, Daniel almost wished Sam had worn something else; given the _identity_ of the Minister of Magic, she’d probably work out how he felt fairly quickly if he gave her too many little clues, and his reaction to Sam dressed like that would definitely count as a rather… prominent… clue.

Of course, his discomfort could also have been because he did _not_ want to have the woman he loved wearing something so… tight… when he had to focus on matters that could decide the fate of several worlds; it made it almost _ridiculously_ hard to concentrate on what he had to do.

Admittedly, he knew it was mostly his mind making the top more revealing than it actually was; as far as he was concerned, Sam would have looked great in everything from skintight black leather (Although why she’d be wearing _that_ Daniel had no idea; even his most vivid fantasies never extended to Sam having a leather fetish) to Abydonian robes…

Once again, Daniel mentally forced himself back on track- this wasn’t helping him deal with the current situation in the _slightest_ \- and focused his attention back on Sam.

“Yeah… I’m fine, Sam,” he said, grateful that Mitchell and Teal’c were sitting a couple of places ahead of them; right now, he just wanted to have to talk to _one_ of the team, rather than all of them. “It’s just… well, it’s been two decades since I’ve seen _any_ of my old friends from… well, before I became Daniel. I guess I’m just… well, I guess I’m…”

“Just a bit anxious about seeing them again?” Sam asked, looking inquiringly at Daniel. He nodded slightly, and she shrugged. “Hey, given what happened to you the _last_ time you saw the majority of them- some of your closest friends dead and you facing the possibility of having to kill that ‘Voldemort’ guy- I can’t say I’m surprised you’re a bit worried.”

A thought suddenly occurred to her, and she looked at him curiously. “Did you ever… well, after you left them, did you…?”

“Make contact with any of them to let them know that I was still alive?” Daniel asked, Sam nodded, and he continued talking. “Well, a little; I sent them the occasional card for Christmas or their birthdays, although I made sure to use the muggle post and send it via a series of ‘dummy addresses’ so they could never trace it back to me.”

Then he stopped talking, a slightly regretful expression on his face. “At least, I _used_ to…”

“What?” Sam asked, looking in confusion at him.

“Well… after I returned from ascension, I kind of… well, I stopped doing it, really,” Daniel said, looking slightly ashamed of himself as he spoke. “I mean… after missing so many letters while I was ascended, I guess a part of me just couldn’t see the point in starting it up again, particularly when I couldn’t explain why I’d stopped for a year in the first place. I figured it was easier to just… let them think I’d gone somewhere where I couldn’t send them letters, or I’d died, or… well, _anything_ … than have to come up with some kind of explanation about why I’d stopped writing and started doing it again; it would have attracted too many questions from them that I didn’t know how to answer.”

“Ah,” Sam said, nodding slightly before a new question occurred to her. “So, any chance you’ll be wanting to visit any of them while we’re over there?”

Looking back at her, Daniel noticed the slightly eager expression on her face- evidently she was eager to meet somebody who’d known him _before_ he was Daniel Jackson- and smiled inwardly.

He knew it was a bit unfair, after keeping his past life secret for so long, but, so long as he didn’t actually _lie_ in his reply, he supposed he could get around it…

Besides, the expression on Sam’s face when they realised _who_ the Minister of Magic was would be something Daniel would be _very_ interested to see…

Sighing slightly, Daniel shook his head as he looked at Sam.

“Sorry, that won’t be possible,” he replied, looking apologetically at Sam. “We’ll have to get straight to the Ministry as soon as possible, and then we’ll probably need to get back to the SGC to begin mounting an offensive. I doubt they’ll be time for casual visits, much as I’d like the chance to see everyone again.”

For a moment, Sam looked like she was going to ask something else, but Daniel shook his head slightly and raised a hand.

“Sorry, to cut this off, but I’ve still got a few details about this visit I’d like to straighten out,” he said, looking apologetically at Sam. “If nothing else, it’s been a long time since I visited this place; I’d like to be sure I know what I’m doing.”

* * *

  
“Oh… right,” Sam said, nodding in understanding as she sat back in her chair. A part of her felt a little disappointed that she wouldn’t have the chance to find out more about Daniel’s past at the moment- she may have studied astronomy rather than sociology, but the concept of a whole society remaining hidden was just _fascinating_ \- but accepting that he’d need time to figure out what he’d need to do when they reached their destination.

She had to admit, she was finding this new aspect of Daniel- the whole ‘tortured hero forced to do the right thing’- somewhat… appealing.

Of course, it wasn’t like she hadn’t cared for him before all this. From what he’d told them of how he was back then, the essential details about Daniel’s personality were still the same- he was still the same good, kind, compassionate, selfless man Sam had known for the past nine or so years of her life, working alongside him time and time again to travel through the Stargate and find new means of fighting the Goa’uld, the Replicators and the Ori…

But this new aspect of his past… the life Daniel had been forced to deal with and yet still managed to come through as the man he _was_ , rather than what he _could_ have been… the fact that he was still prepared to fight for what he believed in when nobody could have blamed him for wanting to just tell the world to get lost and leave him alone…

It just made Sam admire him all the more.

She just wished she knew why she suddenly felt like spending so much time staring at him as he reclined, thinking about what he’d do when they arrived… why she suddenly found herself wondering how she’d never noticed that his physique had developed a great deal since his early days as a slightly scrawny archaeologist with allergy issues…

Suddenly realising what she was thinking, Sam shook her head sharply.

_Stop it!_ she told herself. _You’re dealing with a potential alliance between a dark wizard bent on destroying anyone who isn’t magical_ and _a Goa’uld; this is_ not _the time to be checking out your best friend_!

But still… even as the thought crossed her mind… Sam couldn’t stop herself from sneaking the occasional glance in Daniel’s direction as the flight continued towards Britain, and wondering what, _exactly_ , he’d been like when he’d been at school; if nothing else, she wouldn’t have minded seeing what Daniel was like if he’d remained as… _assertive_ ,as he’d described himself… as he’d been when he’d proposed to Ginny Weasley…

What would it have been like if the two of them had met when he was younger?

Sam couldn’t say.

Nor could she say why such thoughts were suddenly occupying her mind as much as they were now…

* * *

  
A few hours later, the flight having concluded, their check-in details resolved and their luggage- just a couple of bags, of course; they weren’t intending to stay in Britain for much longer than they had to- deposited in their hotel, all four members of SG-1 were standing in the centre of London, having just come off the underground railway.

“Interesting,” Teal’c said, nodding his head thoughtfully as he studied his surroundings. “Although there are similarities to those buildings that exist back in Colorado, there are also significant differences.”

“Yeah; they’re a bit shorter, for one thing,” Mitchell said, smiling slightly as he studied his surroundings; he’d told Daniel on the flight over that he’d never been to London himself, and was evidently appreciating the chance.

Of course, it was apparent that Teal’c was finding the time to study and admire his new surroundings just as much as Mitchell was, even with their mission prominent in their minds. As SG-1 had rarely been called upon to deal with Goa’uld activity in Europe- indeed, baring Russia, Egypt and Antarctica, Daniel couldn’t recall any time in the last few years where he’d travelled to another part of Earth- Teal’c’s experience of the world outside America was significantly limited, and he was evidently appreciating the chance.

Naturally, despite the knowledge of the mission they were on at present, the other three were enjoying their ‘free time’ just as much as Teal’c, not just because they were grateful for the chance to get into casual clothes rather than the typical military green/civilian blue costumes. In general, they blended in fairly well with the surroundings, baring the obvious detail of Teal’c’s far-from-normal physical build.

Now all they needed was for Daniel to get his bearings- it had been a long time since he’d needed to use this particular route- and direct them on where to go from here.

“So…” Mitchell said after a moment’s silence, during which the team had waited by the Underground entrance as Daniel studied his surroundings, “remember the way yet?”

“I _think_ so…” Daniel said hesitantly, as he raised one finger to tap his lips in a thoughtful manner. “It’s not a _sure_ thing, but I _think_ … when I was going to the public entrance,I went… _this_ way,” he said finally, indicating a nearby side road.

“You _think_?” Sam said, looking at Daniel in surprise. “I’d have thought you’d know a bit more about where this place is; it _is_ the location of a society’s _government_ , after all.”

Daniel shrugged nonchalantly. “Well, I didn’t really visit it that much; I only went there a few times, and barely two or three of those were done the muggle way; the rest of the time I just apparated straight to the place,” he explained, as they began to walk further and further into the side road, the buildings becoming increasingly less impressive the further they went. “Plus, as I said, the Ministry and I didn’t really see eye-to-eye, so I generally tried to stay away from them anyway; either they were branding me as an attention-seeking lunatic because they didn’t want to _admit_ that Voldemort was back- although I think some people might have been bribed to look the other way as well- or they were trying to convince me to become their ‘poster boy’ to show the public that I thought they were doing a good job.”

He snorted slightly in a harsh manner. “I wasn’t interested in _that_ , of course; even when they _admitted_ that Voldemort was back, they were more interested in _looking_ like they were doing a good job than in actually _doing_ it. They arrested at least one innocent person during that time just to create a good impression, and wouldn’t let him go even when I asked him to.”

For a moment, Daniel was so intent on retracing his steps from that first long-ago trip with Mr Weasley that he barely even registered that the rest of SG-1 had stopped, but it only took a couple of steps for him to realise that he was alone. Pausing, he turned around to look inquiringly at his friends, as Mitchell raised his right hand slightly in an inquiring manner.

“Uh… and we’re contacting these people after they did all _that_ to you?” he said, looking in surprise at Daniel. “I mean, I would’ve thought you’d’ve wanted to stay _away_ from them…”

Daniel, however, only smiled at Mitchell’s question.

“Trust me; I know for a _fact_ that the current Minister will listen to me _this_ time,” he said simply, trying not to grin too much; he didn’t want to spoil his little ‘surprise’ at their destination.

Then he turned around and continued to walk. Mitchell exchanged curious glances with Sam and Teal’c, but, eventually, the three of them just shrugged and hurried after Daniel. Given that they were about to visit a past that he’d never wanted to have to deal with again, Sam, for one, was just grateful that Daniel had _anything_ to smile about, and figured it would be best to leave him with whatever secret he might have that would explain why the Ministry would listen to him.

It was shortly after the brief halt that Daniel stopped again, this time in front of a very vandalised-looking phone booth, that was positioned in a dingy-looking street which only contained some old offices, a pub that had seen better decades, and a rubbish skip.

“This is it?” Sam asked, indicating the offices incredulously. “They’re a ministry for an entire world of _magic_ , and _this_ is the best they have in the way of office space?

“Actually, the offices are underground and only accessible if you know what you’re doing,” Daniel said, looking over at Sam briefly before he grinned and shook his head in a pitying manner. “But yeah, I agree with you; it _is_ kind of pathetic that they couldn’t give themselves a more impressive location for their own government, even if it _does_ avoid any attention.”

Sighing, he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small square of material, as he flicked his wrist casually, causing his wand to slip out of his sleeve and land in his hand. “Well, we’d better get on with this.”

“What?” Mitchell asked, looking in confusion at his friend.

“Well, I’m not entirely sure what the Ministry’s policy is on muggle visitors- you could just not be allowed in- but I’d rather _not_ have to start telling people that Voldemort’s back without some independent witnesses to back up my story,” Daniel explained, as he indicated the piece of material in his hand. “This is one of the only ways I could think of in getting you in there without anyone noticing you until I’m ready; it’s been shrunk at the moment, but I can have it at greater-than-normal size in a few moments.”

“What is it?” Teal’c asked, looking curiously at the material.

“It’s my father’s old invisibility cloak,” Daniel explained, smiling slightly at the suddenly eager expression on Sam’s face. “They’re remarkably rare, which is why I think that this method of getting in will work; they’re so rare that I doubt methods of detecting them have become a common part of any security systems this place may have.”

“Ah,” Mitchell said, an evidently sceptical expression on his face as he studied the small piece of material in Daniel’s hand. “Uh… you’re sure that’ll fit all three of us?”

Daniel smiled.

“Trust me; before I left the wizarding world, my friends and I went to a _lot_ of effort to make this thing capable of hiding all _four_ of us,” he said, as he raised his wand and gave it a few ‘practice waves’, nodding in approval when it gave off small sparks. “You’re a bit bigger than we were back then, but given that there’s only three of you, it should work.”

Before anyone could ask any further questions, Daniel aimed his wand at the material he held in his hand and yelled out “ _Engorgio_!”

Instantly, the material in question expanded to a size that almost resembled a tent rather than the cloak Daniel had claimed it was. The shimmering grey material draped over his arm, Daniel smiled at the slightly stunned expression on Mitchell and Sam’s face as he tossed the cloak over to Teal’c.

“You’d better go in the middle; Sam and Cam can just go on either side of you,” he said, as Teal’c studied the material in his hands for a moment before looking back at Daniel.

“You say this is an ‘invisibility cloak’?” the Jaffa asked, looking curiously at his friend. “If that is so, why is it visible now?”

“It’s only invisible when you’re wearing it, Teal’c; the rest of the time, it’s just your average cloak,” Daniel explained, before his expression became serious once more as he jerked his thumb towards the phone box. “Anyway, we’d better get moving; the sooner the Minister knows that Voldemort’s back, the better.”

Nodding in understanding, Sam and Mitchell headed over to stand on either side of Teal’c as the Jaffa pulled the cloak over his head, draping it over his two friends in the process. At once, the three figures had vanished, with only a slight shimmer in the air where the cloak hadn’t quite settled properly to indicate that they were even there.

Taking a deep breath, Daniel walked into the phone box, leaving the door open behind him to indicate that the others should follow him. As he felt something force him forward slightly, he smiled briefly and picked up the receiver, praying that the number wouldn’t have changed in the last few years.

“Uh… Jackson?” Mitchell’s voice said from behind him, confusion evident in his tone. “You sure that-”

“Sssh,” Daniel said briefly, before he raised the receiver to his ear slightly- it may not matter _how_ he addressed the speaker, but after so long in the muggle world he preferred doing it this way- and dialled what he hoped were still the required numbers for entrance to the Ministry; six two four four two.

As soon as the dial had whirled smoothly back into place following the last number, a female voice spoke in the box, prompting a slight jolt behind Daniel as though somebody had jumped.

“Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business.”

“Daniel Jackson, here to speak with the Minister of Magic on urgent business,” Daniel replied, calmly and casually; he wasn’t going to announce himself as Harry Potter just yet.

“Thank you,” said the voice. “Visitor, please take the badge and attach it to the front of your robes.”

As the square silver badge clattered into the chute that would have once been used for returned coins, the box began to sink into the ground, prompting two surprised gasps and a slight ‘mmm’ of interest from under the cloak. As Daniel pinned the badge to his jacket- noting that it said _Daniel Jackson, Minister Meeting_ \- he only vaguely registered the voice asking him to submit his wand for registration at the security desk before he had stepped out into the vast wooden-walled hall of the main Ministry office, smiling slightly as he once again heard the shocked gasp of the rest of his team from under the invisibility cloak. Beckoning his friends to follow him with a hand behind his back, Daniel walked down the corridor, past the fountain- he noted that the centaur, goblin and house-elf had been removed, probably on the order of the current Minister- until he reached the _Security_ desk to the left of the large main gates.

“I’m here to see the Minister of Magic,” Daniel said, nodding at the wizard behind the desk (Who, he noticed with some surprise, was the same person who’d been here the last time; evidently his old friend didn’t see the point in hiring any new security).

“Wand,” the man said simply, indicating a brass instrument that vaguely resembled a set of scales. Daniel laid his wand on the instrument, which briefly vibrated until a narrow strip of parchment came out of the slit at its base, which was promptly snatched up by the wizard and examined. “Eleven inches, phoenix-feather core, been in use for…”

He paused in his reading and looked at Daniel curiously. “You’ve only used it for _seven_ years?”

For a moment, Daniel thought something was wrong- did the man actually _remember_ him from that previous visit?- but then he glanced at the paper and saw the problem; the wand was listed as having been purchased when he first started Hogwarts, but it had only been actually _used_ for about seven years.

“I’ve been working in the muggle world; I don’t really need it that often these days,” he said simply, hoping that would suffice as an explanation for the moment. The wizard looked uncertain for a moment, but then he just nodded, took the piece of paper, and handed Daniel back his wand before pulling out a secrecy sensor. For a moment Daniel was concerned, but when it passed over him and nothing happened, he relaxed; evidently it didn’t go off so long as he wasn’t concealing anything _dangerous_ about himself.

Nodding briefly at the man, Daniel turned and began to walk towards the nearest lift, his ears detecting the slight shuffle that indicated that Sam, Mitchell and Teal’c were just behind him. As he stepped up to the lift and pushed the required button, Daniel smiled slightly in anticipation of what was about to come.

_Here I come, old friend_ … he said, the smile still on his face as the lift doors opened and he stepped into them, his friends close behind him as he pushed the button for the Minister’s office…

* * *

  
“Great…” Hermione Granger, one of the youngest Ministers of Magic in history and top of her graduating class at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry- even _with_ all the time she’d missed hunting Voldemort’s horcruxes- said, as she stared in frustration at the pile of paperwork before her. “ _Honestly_ … how anyone managed to do this job without _killing_ themselves in frustration I’ll never know…”

Her ‘official postal owl’, as Hermione referred to her when anyway asked why she kept an owl in her office, hooted inquiringly, and Hermione looked over at the owl with a small smile on her face.

“It’s nothing, Hedwig; just work getting on top of me again,” she said, once again unable not to think of her unofficial ‘brother’ as she looked at the snow-white owl that had once belonged to him. When she’d been well enough to leave the hospital following Harry’s final goodbye, she’d discovered that he’d left Hedwig behind along with most of his other possessions; baring some clothes and money, all he seemed to have taken with him- wherever he’d gone- was his wand, his cloak, the Marauder’s Map, the Get Well card Ginny had made him in third year, and the photograph album Hagrid had given him towards the end of his first year. Why he’d left so many other personal possessions behind, Hermione had no idea; either he’d wanted to travel light, or he just hadn’t felt them worth taking.

She’d never been able to decide, really.

And, of course, she’d never been able to ask Harry for a detailed explanation as to what his reasons had _actually_ been; even when he’d started sending her and some of the others cards for special occasions such as Christmas and birthdays, he’d never included a return address, so she’d never been able to try and track him down that way.

Quite frankly, even after almost two decades, nobody had any idea where Harry had actually gone, or when he’d managed to pick up what items he had…

Regardless of what had happened to him in the future, at the time of his departure, the other members of the Order had decided that, until they found Harry or knew he was dead, as his closest living friend, Hermione was entitled to her choice of Harry’s remaining possessions, and she’d chosen to keep Hedwig. The owl was getting old, of course, and sometimes seemed to be moulting slightly, but, as a magical owl, she was still in pretty good health, and Hermione liked keeping her around as a reminder of her old friends; she still had Crookshanks, of course, but she didn’t feel right bringing him into the office for no actual reason.

A slight thump from outside her door prompted Hermione to look up in surprise, thoughts of the past driven from her mind for the moment, but she was soon smiling broadly as she noticed the slight hint of pink hair through the frosty glass in her door; evidently her friend had finished her earlier assignment sooner than had been expected and decided to just come to the meeting anyway.

“ _Tonks_ …” she said, shaking her head pityingly, as Tonks Lupin (Whose choice of name after marriage still prompted the occasional joke among her friends and colleagues), the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement came through the door, her typically sheepish expression on her face as she looked at Hermione while rubbing her shoulder slightly.

“Uh… sorry about the noise; I… uh… tripped on a loose floorboard again?” she said hopefully.

Hermione just shook her head; her friend’s clumsiness was notorious to all.

“You know, if that excuse of yours was _ever_ an accurate account of events, my floor should have fallen in with all the ‘loose floorboards’ you seem to keep finding?” he said, staring teasingly at Tonks as she indicated a chair. “Quite frankly, if you keep on tripping over your own feet every time you visit me, I’ll have to give your department to Dean; I know for a fact that at least _he_ can actually stay quiet when the need arises…”

“ _No way_!” Tonks yelled, shooting up rapidly in her seat even as she began to sit down in it. “You _can’t_ give it to _Dean_ ; he’s a complete _idiot_! The man wouldn’t know how to do anything beyond hit the target around a lot; you’ve got to have someone who actually _thinks_ for this job to be done properly-”

“Tonks, _calm down_ ; you know I’d _never_ give your department to someone else,” Hermione said, grinning at the woman who’d become like an older sister over the past few years as she stood in front of Hermione, her hair rapidly turning red to match her currently-intense emotions. “Honestly, you are _so_ easy to tease sometimes…”

Glaring at Hermione for a moment, Tonks finally just sighed in frustration and slumped back into her chair.

“OK, you’ve got me _again_ ,” she said, as she gave Hermione a small smile to show that she didn’t bear the Minister a grudge; even though the two had known each other since Hermione had still been in school, Tonks still sometimes treated Hermione as though she was the metamorphagus’s boss, rather than her friend. “Anyway, what did you want to talk to me about?”

At that query, Hermione instantly became all business, sitting up straight in her chair as she looked at Tonks.

“Unfortunately, it’s a continuing matter,” she said, as she reached into her desk to pick out a file from a drawer and pass it to Tonks. “I’ve been reviewing the information from our muggle observation branch, and they’ve noticed quite a few of the… more silent members of our society, shall we say?… suddenly proving rather… active around airports; their passports have been registered as being in use at the check-in desks.”

Tonks’ face grew pale at those words.

She and Hermione were some of the few people who knew that the Ministry of Magic had exaggerated the success of the post-war clean-up of the Death Eaters. Determined not to repeat Fudge’s mistakes, Scrimgeour had, fortunately, refused to allow Death Eaters to walk free, and sentenced them all to Azkaban no matter how much they pleaded to have been controlled by the Imperius Curse, but even with the aid of the Order of the Phoenix, a few Death Eaters had managed to escape capture (Including Snape, Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange and Peter ‘Wormtail’ Pettigrew’, among others).

Despite all attempts to find them, the searches organised by the Ministry and the Order had so far failed to turn anything up that might reveal where the hiding; evidently the Death Eaters were more willing to operate ‘under the radar’ than they had been after the previous war, when many of them had made full use of their families’ money to live as comfortable a life as possible.

“Do we have any idea _why_ this is happening?” Tonks asked Hermione, knowing that her friend would understand what she meant. The real mystery wasn’t why Death Eaters were using muggle transportation- magical means of leaving the continent were under constant surveillance to prevent the remaining Death Eaters escaping, but the Ministry’s means of keeping an eye on muggle transport methods was still limited no matter how much they tried- but why they were risking leaving _at all_.

After all, leaving Britain, the Death Eaters would be bound to attract attention, especially since they weren’t even using assumed names to conceal their actions, so why would they take such a risk _now_ , after so many years…?

Just as Hermione opened her mouth to speak, however, the door to her office opened once again and a man in glasses and dressed completely in muggle clothing- jeans, a shirt and a jacket- walked in, smiling broadly at the two women before him.

Glancing up in surprise, Hermione quickly took in his appearance, soon confirming that she didn’t recognise him from any pictures of the still-active Death Eaters, but unable to shake the feeling that she knew him from somewhere.

In fact, change his eye colour and darken his hair, and the man could almost pass for…

Before the thought could finish crossing her mind, Hedwig had flown off the perch to land on the man’s shoulder, where she promptly (Adding to Hermione’s confusion) nipped him once on the ear with her beak before flying away again.

“OUCH!” the man yelled, clutching his ear as he stared at Hedwig; despite the annoyance on his face, his smile suggested that he was actually glad to see the owl. “You know, Hedwig, I know I left you pretty rapidly back then, but it’s been over twenty years; you can’t have been holding a grudge for _that_ long!”

Hermione’s jaw dropped.

_Twenty years_ …

It _couldn’t_ be… he looked so _different_ …

But it was him.

No matter what else had changed over the last few years, she knew it was him; nobody else could have provoked that kind of reaction from Hedwig.

“H… Harry?” she whispered, staring incredulously at the man before her, the man who had apparently once been her closest friend- practically her _brother_ \- when they were both at school, and whom she hadn’t heard from for the last twenty years…

Looking back at her, the man- _Harry?_ \- smiled.

“Hello, Hermione,” he said, a soft expression on his face, the expression she’d seen on his face so many times when he’d been consoling her about Ron, despite him hurting just as much as she had been…

It was Harry Potter.

He had come back.

And, for the first time in her life, Hermione had absolutely _no_ idea what to say.


	13. Catching Up with Old Friends

Despite the seriousness of the situation they were currently in, Daniel couldn’t help but chuckle at the expression on Hermione’s face. Even given how much he’d changed over the last couple of decades, he’d somehow doubted that he’d _ever_ be able to come up with something that would surprise Hermione, but the evidence in front of him made it clear that, not only had he succeeded, he’d actually done something that he’d thought was impossible.

He’d rendered Hermione speechless.

And, now that he took in the _other_ person in the room, he noted that Tonks seemed just as shocked about this as his old friend did.

“Well?” he said after a moment’s pause; evidently the rest of SG-1 were either just as stunned at the identity of the Minister of Magic as Hermione was to see him or wanted him to make the introductions, so he’d have to take up the conversation on his own. “Isn’t anyone going to say anything?”

“You…” Hermione whispered, staring incredulously at him. “You… you’re alive… you’re _alive_ ….”

Before Harry could fully process it- when you got down to it, he hadn’t even _expected_ this; Hermione had never really been a very physically expressive person when he knew her- his old friend had stood up, literally _leapt_ over her desk, apparently uncaring of the papers that were thrown about by such an action, and had thrown her arms around Hathe man who had once been Harry Potter, sobbing slightly into his shoulder.

“You’re _real_ …” she whispered, as Daniel put his arms around her, hugging her in return. “You’re really _here_ … you’re all _right_ …”

Then she stepped back and slapped him in the face.

“OW!” Daniel yelled, reeling back slightly and clutching at his cheek as he stared at Hermione. “What was _that_ for?”

“You _left_ us all, Harry; what do you _think_ it was for?” Hermione yelled, glaring at her old schoolfriend through her still-red eyes. “It’s been _twenty years_ , and what have I got from you in that time? _A bunch of Christmas and birthday cards_! _DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT YOU CAN JUST WALK BACK INTO MY LIFE AND-”_

“ _Hermione_ ,” Daniel said, staring at his friend, knowing this would be unlikely to win him any more points with her but equally knowing that he had to say it. “He’s back.”

Once again, Daniel was treated to the sight of Hermione Granger, Minister of Magic and top witch in her graduating class at Hogwarts, rendered speechless as she stared at him. Evidently, his theory about what he’d need to say to reveal Voldemort’s resurrection had been right; Hermione knew well that there could only be one person who Harry would describe as simply ‘he’.

And, once again, there was silence- SG-1 must have recovered from the initial shock by now, so Harry could only presume that they were simply awaiting his cue to reveal themselves to his wizard colleagues- until the silence was broken once again, this time by Tonks.

“Wh… what?” she asked, staring at the man who had once been the closest thing to a nephew she could actually be _proud_ of. “He… do you mean…?”

Daniel simply nodded, not trusting himself to speak right now.

“But… how _can_ he be?” Hermione asked staring incredulously at her long-absent friend. “And how do you _know_?”

“Well…” Daniel said, taking a deep breath and exhaling before he looked at the two women once again, “I can’t answer the first year, but the answer to the second one is a fairly _long_ story, and I’ll need help explaining the background to it- such as what I’ve been doing for the last decade or so- before I can even get to _that_ part of it. So, if you’ll give me an hour or so, and are willing to be patient…”

Hermione nodded slightly, a shaken expression on her face as she stared at her old friend.

“S… sure…” she said, as she reached over to scribble a note on a piece of paper and slipped it into a nearby message tube. “I… I can just cancel my appointments… nothing major coming up anyway…”

“Thanks,” Daniel said, smiling briefly at her as he glanced back at the place where- he was fairly sure, given the same slight shimmer he’d noticed earlier- the rest of SG-1 was standing. “Now then, _this_ is the ‘help’ I said I’d need to explain the background.”

Reaching back, Daniel felt for the invisibility cloak and pulled it off his teammates in one motion, once again smiling slightly at the stunned expression on the face of the Hermione Granger he’d once thought to be totally unflappable. Glancing back at SG-1, he couldn’t help but grin even more as he took in the expression on their faces, grateful that Sam and Mitchell seemed to be more shocked than hurt that he’d kept this detail from them; Teal’c, of course, was harder to judge.

“H… Hermione _Granger_?” Sam said, staring incredulously at Daniel as she looked between him and the women sitting before them. “You mean that your old schoolfriend is the _head_ of the _entire_ wizarding _government_?”

“Just the British branch; I’m pretty the American government’s independent of the British Ministry,” Daniel said, looking at the three of them with an apologetic expression combined with a small smile. “Sorry I didn’t mention it earlier; I guess I just… well, wanted to surprise you, I guess.”

“Oh yeah; ‘surprise’ is _definitely_ the right word…” Mitchell said, as he looked at the two women with a small smile on his face. He had to admit, it _was_ a change to meet a politician around his age; most of the ones connected with the SGC were at least a decade or so older than he was, but Hermione actually seemed to be about a year _younger_ than him. “How’d you _get_ this job?”

“Oh… uh… quite frankly, even _I’m_ not sure about that at times; I was just convinced to try out in the elections and got lucky…” Hermione said, looking at Mitchell in what Daniel could almost swear was an approving manner before she seemed to realise what she was doing and turned to stare reproachfully at Daniel. “And who _are_ these people, anyway?”

“Oh, right, sorry; I forgot that you haven’t been told _anything_ about us,” Sam said, smiling apologetically at the other woman as she stepped forward and held out her hand to Hermione. “I’m Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter, of the United States Air Force.”

“Cameron Mitchell; ditto on the other stuff,” Mitchell said, stepping forward to shake Tonks’ hand as Sam shook Hermione’s. “Oh, and the big guy’s just called Teal’c, although he can be called Murray when we’re in public.”

Hermione blinked in confusion as she looked at the three new arrivals for a moment, and then finally turned to look at Daniel.

“ _United State Air Force_?” she said, incredulity evident in her very words as she stared at her old friend. “Harry, no offence, but what the _Hell_ are _you_ doing with members of the United States _Air Force_?”

“Well, for starters, I’m _not_ being _Harry_ ,” Daniel put in, staring fixedly at Hermione as he said it.

He knew it was a bit of a harsh thing to say right now- he generally didn’t like being that blunt with people he knew, particularly on important matters- but, as far as he was concerned, he hadn’t been Harry Potter since the day he walked out of Hermione’s hospital room, and he wanted that to be established right now.

He’d made a new life for himself since the aftermath of the war against Voldemort; it was time to make sure that everyone he’d known acknowledged that fact.

Hermione blinked.

“Wh… what?” she said, looking increasingly confused as she looked at the man who had once been Harry.

“I changed my name after I left the wizarding world,” Daniel explained, as he looked at Hermione and Tonks. “I’ve called myself Daniel Jackson for the last two decades; ‘Harry Potter’ was just too distinctive, and it would have made it easy for any wizard with even _half_ a brain to realise who I really was.”

* * *

  
“Oh,” Hermione said in a small voice as she looked at her old friend.

She had to admit, she hadn’t actually expected Harry to go so far as to actually change his _name_ when he left them. She knew that he’d _said_ he hadn’t wanted to be found when the two of them had last seen each other, that long-ago day in St Mungo’s, but to go to these kind of lengths to ensure that ‘wish’ was fulfilled…

He must have _really_ wanted to get away from his past.

“So,” Tonks said, breaking the awkward silence that had settled over the room, looking at Sam as she spoke, “just out of curiosity, what does… _Daniel_ … do for the Air Force?”

“Oh, he’s officially a civilian consultant for potential diplomatic missions,” Sam explained, shooting an inquiring glance at Daniel who nodded reassuringly, prompting her to continue. “He generally serves as our linguist, archaeologist and anthropologist in making first contact on… well, our missions.”

Hermione blinked.

“Sorry, are we talking about _Harry_ here?” she said, staring incredulously at Sam. “I mean, not that he wasn’t smart at school, but smart enough for-”

“I _am_ standing right here, Hermione,” Daniel interjected, a slightly teasing expression on his face as he looked at her, before his expression became more serious. “To answer your immediate question, things change a lot over a couple of decades. And before you ask why the _Air Force_ would need someone with all those talents Sam just told you I have… well, that is something you are _definitely_ going to have trouble believing.”

Hermione chuckled slightly at that.

“Har- _Daniel_ ,” she corrected herself, noting her friend’s fixed glare in her direction, “I’m the head of a government for a secret magical society, while you- no offence intended, of course- have been working with the United States _Air Force_ as a _civilian_ consultant. What could you all have to tell me that I _wouldn’t_ believe?”

“Aliens exist and influenced the development of our entire civilisation by posing as our gods thousands of years ago,” Mitchell put in as he looked at Hermione, a small smile on his face. “Actually, Teal’c here’s one of ‘em- an alien, that is, not one of the guys who posed as a god.”

Hermione’s eyes widened once again as she stared incredulously at Mitchell, apparently unable to take in what had just been said to her. Tonks, on the other hand, was a lot more expressive in her shock; she literally _fell_ forward, out of her chair and onto the ground before her.

“Al… _aliens_?!” Hermione said, as she looked at Teal’c in confusion. “And _he’s_ … But… but he doesn’t even _look_ like an alien!”

“Nevertheless, I am not as human as I appear,” Teal’c said, as he looked at Hermione. “It is hard to believe, but I am a Jaffa warrior, formerly the First Prime of the Goa’uld System Lord known as Apophis, and presently one of these privileged enough to have fought alongside Earth against the System Lords and played a part in the creation of the Free Jaffa Nation.”

“Goa… what?” Tonks said in confusion, latching on to the most distinctive word in that sentence.

“Apophis?” Hermione said at the same time, looking at Teal’c in equal confusion. “Wasn’t that the Egyptian god of the dead?”

“OK, can I just begin this story where it all began for _me_ , please?” Daniel put in, raising a hand to draw Hermione’s attention back to him. “Hermione, have you ever noticed how, in all those records in our history and curse books of the security spells put on the pyramids, the spells were always described as having been put in _after_ the pyramids were built, and never _during_ construction, when it would have been a lot easier?”

“Well… yes, but what does that have to do with anything?” Hermione said, looking promptingly at Daniel; evidently she resented the fact that he wasn’t answering her query about Apophis. “I mean, maybe the Egyptian wizards just didn’t want their magic to interfere with the construction and felt like waiting until the work was done; after all, just building the pyramids must have been hard enough as it _was_ without adding in any _more_ magic to the equation…”

“Actually, the reason was that the pyramids had been built millennia _earlier_ than anyone had thought,” Sam explained, as she looked at Hermione, trying not to think too much about the concept of defensive _spells_ being used in pyramids; thoughts of Goa’uld technology being in them was more than enough strangeness for her as far as she was concerned.

“You see,” she continued, enjoying the slightly incredulous look on the other woman’s face- a part of her was glad to know that she could even shock people who used _magic_ on a regular basis-, “centuries ago, a race called the Goa’uld- alien, snake-like parasites that can use humanoid bodies as hosts- were dying out, for reasons we’ve never been able to establish, but managed to discover Earth, and realised that the humans who lived there were perfect to serve as hosts for them.”

Nodding thankfully at Sam, Daniel took up the story once again. “Taking control of convenient host bodies- commonly powerful, spirited men and women- they used their advanced technology to pose as various gods from both Greek and Egyptian mythology- that’s why Teal’c’s old master was called Apophis; he inspired the Egyptian myths that feature the aforementioned god- and took human slaves to other planets through the Stargate, a device that was created centuries ago by a race we know as the Ancients.”

“The Ancients?” Tonks interjected.

“Pretty much some of the first sentient beings to evolve in our universe,” Mitchell put in. “They created a whole bunch of advanced technology, including the Stargate network- a bunch of planets in our galaxy that can be instantly accessed thanks to these Stargates acting as ‘portals’ to the various worlds- but they vanished several centuries ago when a terrible plague struck; it’s a long story that isn’t really relevant to the current issue.”

“Don’t worry, Hermione; I’ll tell you more about them when the time’s right,” Daniel said, smiling reassuringly at his old friend- guessing, quite accurately, that she’d want to know more about the details of those events- before he continued his original story. “Anyway, the Goa’uld were eventually driven away from Earth by a slave rebellion in Egypt, and the Earth Stargate- well, one of them; there was another one located in Antarctica, but it was destroyed a few years ago by a Goa’uld using an Ancient weapon- was buried at the Giza plateau until it was finally dug up in 1928 by a team of archaeologists.”

“Experiments on the Stargate only seriously began in the 1970s, but no real progress was made for ages,” Sam put in, taking up the story herself. “I was one of the team involved in the attempts to make the Stargate work, but, after two years, we had nothing…”

Pausing briefly, she smiled over at Daniel in a slightly teasing manner and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Until, that is, _Doctor_ Daniel Jackson here managed to work out that the Stargate allowed us to ‘dial’ other planets- in only two weeks, without ever seeing the ‘gate itself- and managed to activate it to send us to the planet Abydos, populated by some of the Egyptian slaves that the Goa’uld had taken all those years ago.”

For a moment, Hermione’s eyes grew so wide that it looked as though they were about to fall out of her head.

“D… _Doctor_ Daniel Jackson?” she said, staring incredulously at Daniel. “You’ve got a _doctorate_?”

“I have _three_ , Hermione, weren’t you listening earlier?” Daniel asked, a smile on his face. “I’m an archaeologist, anthropologist and a linguist these days; when I said I wanted to make a life for myself in studying Egyptian history, I was _really_ determined to do what I could.”

“Trust me, he’s good,” Mitchell put in, smiling slightly at Hermione’s stunned expression even as a part of him noted that she was kind of cute when she looked shocked. “The man knows twenty-three Earth languages and about seven alien ones, including _fluent_ Goa’uld; can translate pretty much anything you want in a matter of minutes, though stuff like Babylonian can take him a bit longer.”

“A-A- _Archaeology_?” Hermione stuttered, her eyes widening as she stared at the man she’d once known as Harry Potter; if she’d been drinking something, she would have spat it out in shock. “After all the times _I_ had to take notes _for_ you in History of Magic, you actually took a career _in_ historical research… I don’t know whether to feel surprised or angry…”

Daniel just shrugged dismissively as he looked at Hermione.

“You’d be surprised what can happen when you’ve got time on your hands and an actual _interest_ in the topic,” he said, as he smiled slightly at his old friend. “After all, those lectures on goblin rebellions just got so tedious after the first lesson, and you know as well as I do that Binns never even _tried_ to make them interesting even when they were totally _new_ to us…”

For a moment, Daniel just stood there shaking his head slightly, a nostalgic smile on his face as he did so, but then the moment passed and he became more serious once again. “Anyway, when we arrived on Abydos, the team that had been sent there- consisting of me, Colonel Jack O’Neill, and Majors Charles Kawalsky and Louis Feretti, encountered our first Goa’uld- Ra, who as we later learned was the Supreme System Lord of the Goa’uld- and managed to defeat him by transporting a nuclear bomb onto his spaceship when he tried to run away. We thought that was it- the writings I’d translated seemed to say that he was the last of his race- but, a year later, we learned that Ra was just one of many Goa’uld active out there, and, as a result, the SG teams were set up.”

“SG teams?” Tonks said, looking at the four people before her and Hermione in ever-growing confusion.

“A group of teams consisting of at least three personnel, whose jobs were to travel through the Stargate to make contact with other planets and learn means of combating the Goa’uld, as well as to form alliances with anybody who may be able to help us take them on,” Mitchell put in, indicating Teal’c as he spoke. “Actually, T here was our first major non-human ally. As he said at the beginning, he was the First Prime of the Goa’uld Apophis- position’s the equivalent of a general in their armies, basically- but he defected to our side when the commander of the original mission convinced Teal’c that he could free the Goa’uld’s slaves from their masters.”

“It was a statement that has proven to be true,” Teal’c said, taking up the story for himself. “My people- the Jaffa- had long been dependent on the Goa’uld for our survival, having been bred to lack a conventional human immune system. We were forced to act as incubators for larval Goa’uld to supplant our own immune systems when we passed the age that you call ‘puberty’, thus keeping us alive, but slaves to the Goa’uld; any attempts to remove the symbiote will result in our deaths, and we must constantly change to another symbiote when our present one becomes too mature to require a Jaffa any further.”

“Oh my God…” Hermione whispered as she stared at Teal’c. “H… how did you get over that?”

“Via the use of a drug called tretonin,” Sam said, taking up the story once again. “Essentially, tretonin was originally produced from ground Goa’uld symbiotes- we use a synthetic version these days- which serves the same purpose as a symbiote, without the previous disadvantages inherent in that method. Teal’c was one of the first Jaffa to start using the drug on a regular basis, and it’s become a regular thing among the Jaffa since then; it’s one of the main reasons we were able to forge an alliance-”

“Uh… excuse me?” Tonks said, holding a hand up as she stared critically at the man who she had once called Harry. “Not that I’m _not_ finding all of this interesting, but could you possibly get back to the part where this ties into the fact that _he’s_ apparently back?”

* * *

  
“Oh… right,” Daniel said, looking apologetically at Hermione before his expression became more serious as he continued. “Anyway, since we first started going through the Stargate we’ve come a long way; the Jaffa have set up their own government, the Goa’uld are as good as defeated- there’s only a few minor Goa’uld still active nowadays- and, while there are still _problems_ , it’s not as bad as it used to be; the bad guys are tough, but their numbers are limited, and they’re not really relevant to our current problem…”

Daniel paused for a moment, as though trying to decide how to say what needed to be said, and then continued to talk. “But, a few days ago, the SGC was infiltrated and the Stargate was activated, allowing the attackers to make contact with Hestia, one of the few remaining Goa’uld. The attackers wore the black robes and skull-masks of the Death Eaters…”

Once again, Daniel fell silent; the only difference, in this case, was that he wasn’t doing it even _partially_ for dramatic effect, but because he found it genuinely difficult to say what he was about to say.

Eventually, however, Teal’c decided to say it for himself.

“And the Goa’uld that led these men to Stargate Command, subsequently forming an apparent alliance with the minor Goa’uld known as Hestia at the other end of the Stargate, called himself Lord Voldemort,” Teal’c explained, looking at the two women as he bluntly gave them the reason why they had come to them in the first place

Hermione’s eyes widened as she looked at Teal’c, both shock and confusion blending together on her face as she stared at the people before her.

“E… excuse me?” she said, looking over at Daniel. “But… Voldemort’s a _Goa’uld_ now? He’s become an alien… snake… that can take over people’s bodies, and he _knows_ about this… ‘Stargate’ thing of yours? How does _that_ work? What makes you think he’s even telling the _truth_ about his name?”

“I don’t know how he _did_ it; that wasn’t all that important to me at the time,” Daniel said, shaking his head as he looked at Hermione. “All I know is that he _is_ Voldemort; even if some Goa’uld managed to take control of a wizard and use his body- which, by the way, looks remarkably like Voldemort’s old one for reasons I _also_ can’t explain yet- the Death Eaters wouldn’t follow him just because he _looks_ like their old boss. It’d take a lot more than just a _name_ to convince them that Voldemort had come back; he’d need to be able to do pretty much _everything_ that Voldemort could do prior to his defeat for the Death Eaters to follow him, not to mention the fact that I doubt just _anyone_ can activate the Dark Marks or stuff like that. Besides…”

Once again, he left the sentence hanging for a moment, as though trying to decide how to say what he was about to say, and then continued. “I’ve had these… dreams… recently, that suggest there might be more going on then even we know about.”

“When you say _dreams_ , do you mean… like you had prior to the Quidditch World Cup?” Hermione asked, looking curiously at Daniel.

“Not exactly,” Daniel replied, ignoring the confused expressions on SG-1’s faces as he continued. “I wasn’t actually _seeing_ Voldemort or anything like that; it was just… well, like a _warning,_ I guess is the best term for it. I saw… people dying- all people who were _already_ dead; I don’t think he’s ‘planning’ to kill anyone at the moment, and he didn’t even seem to know I was involved in the Stargate program, so he couldn’t have been trying to consciously get at me like he did during my exams- and then, at the end of it…”

He swallowed slightly, as though preparing himself for something that he’d rather not think about, and then he finished his sentence.

“I see Voldemort’s eyes… and I hear his voice telling me ‘Soon’.”

For a moment, there was silence in the room as the other five contemplated what Daniel had just told them, and then Sam spoke.

“Uh… what does she mean, dreams like you had before the… Quidditch world cup?” she asked, looking in confusion at Daniel.

“And what _is_ Quidditch anyway?” Mitchell put in.

“It’s a wizarding sport,” Daniel said, looking back at Mitchell first. “Seven players and three goals for each side, four balls for the whole game, ten points per score, and a potential bonus of a hundred and fifty points for whichever side catches one of the balls first; it’s really rather interesting, if a bit complicated at times.”

Then the smile faded as he looked back at Sam. “As for the dream query… well, I learned a long time ago that, when Voldemort failed to kill me, it formed a kind of… ‘link’ between us. I sometimes saw what he was planning in dreams, or he could try and feed me false information, that kind of thing…”

He shook his head, as though warding off some unpleasant memory, and then looked back at the others. “It doesn’t matter, however; as I told Hermione, this wasn’t like those dreams. I wasn’t seeing Voldemort, it was more like a part of me just… knew he was coming and tried to warn me, but I couldn’t understand it until it was too late.”

“Ah,” Mitchell said simply.

That was all he could say, really; he was starting to feel increasingly out of his depth with the current situation- magic was _not_ something he’d expected to deal with when he’d joined the SGC, even if some of the technology they used could be compared to it- and could only hope that they’d get down to the essential details soon.

Specifically, that they’d get on with the business of actually asking these guys for the help they’d come here to request in the first place.

He didn’t have long to wait; evidently, Daniel wasn’t all that interested in waiting around here longer than he had to.

“Anyway,” Daniel said, shrugging the earlier matter off as he looked up at Hermione and Tonks in a determined manner, “you’ve both heard the situation that prompted me to come back here, so now I’ll just get down the specific _reason_ I came back; I need to know if you can spare any aurors- preferably the ones who actually _knew_ me when the git was walking about the last time; the less people who know about me being back the better- to help us travel back to the planet that Voldemort’s stationed himself on and deal with the situation.”

Hermione’s eyes widened.

“You mean… you want me to send a group of aurors- from the Order of the Phoenix, no less; there’s not that many of them about any more- through this… ‘Stargate’… to fight on another _planet_?” she said, staring incredulously at Daniel. “You can’t expect me to just-”

“I’ll have a team of the most loyal former Order members selected in twenty-four hours, Harry; you just see about arranging transport,” Tonks said, standing up and nodding at Daniel and SG-1 before looking back at Hermione in a slightly apologetic manner. “Sorry, Hermione, but we both know that I have authority in auror matters, and, if there’s even the _slightest_ chance that we have an actual solid _lead_ on…” she faltered for a moment, as though unwilling to say what Daniel had just revealed to them, before she finally settled on saying, “on the Death Eaters… for the first time in the last two decades, then we _have_ to investigate it.”

The apologetic smile then faded from her face as she looked critically at the younger woman. “So, do you want to come along as well, or are you just going to stay here and wonder about what might have happened if you’d come along?”

For a moment, Hermione seemed about to protest, but Daniel raised a hand to stop her.

“Hermione, if you’re about to say that you’ve got too much work or something like that, I’m warning you, I _will_ hit you; I heard enough of that when we were in school, and you don’t have much of an _actual_ excuse now anyway,” he said, glaring at her slightly. “You can take a few days off, you’ve got other people who can keep track of the work until you get back, you are _way_ overdue for a holiday if my information’s still accurate, and we both know that you were an expert duellist once you got past your inability to decide between all the spells you knew in a split-second decision.”

Then his face lost its seriousness, and, an almost pleading expression on his face, Daniel reached over to take one of Hermione’s hands in his, as he looked at her pleadingly.

“Besides,” he said, looking at her with a soft, almost pleading smile on his face, “I’ve… well, I’ve missed you. I’d like the chance to just… well, kick back with you for a bit when we get the time, and I’m not going to get that if you stay _here_.”

* * *

  
For a moment, the two old friends just sat there, looking at each other, and Sam was unable to restrain a pang of jealousy despite herself. She knew that it was hardly fair of her to be jealous of someone who Daniel- or Harry, as this woman thought of him- hadn’t even _seen_ for the last two _decades_ , but still, a part of her couldn’t help but resent the close bond the two of them evidently shared even after so long apart.

If Daniel had left _then_ for two decades when he was Ascended, would she have been as close to him as Hermione was when he’d come back to them? Admittedly, it would have been harder for her to adjust to him being back than it was for Hermione- if nothing else, Daniel would have remained the same age he was when he ‘died’ while she would have been in around her fifties, but he and Hermione were still the same age- but still… could she have coped with it?

_Stop it_ , she thought to herself, shaking that thought off as she turned her attention back to the matter at hand. Even with their knowledge of alternate realities- hell, even after their confrontation with their other selves trying to steal the Atlantis ZPM- she saw no point in dwelling on the ‘What Ifs’ of every situation they’d ever encountered. Her dwelling on what might have been if Daniel had been Ascended for longer than he was in the end was irrelevant; the fact was that he’d come back when he’d come back, and that was it.

Looking back at Hermione and Daniel, she smiled slightly as she saw the Minister of Magic shake her head slightly as Daniel gave her that slight ‘puppy-dog’ look that always left her feeling as though a part of her was about to melt.

Even after almost a decade, she’d _never_ managed to figure out how to resist it, and she somehow doubted Hermione had ever been forced to deal with it; something like that look took a while to perfect, and she had a strong certainty that Daniel hadn’t been able to do it when he was just a _teenager_.

Judging by the slight sigh that came from Hermione’s lips as she looked back at Daniel, her theory was correct.

“All right,” she said, as she looked at her old friend with a small smile on her face. “Tonks and I will have a couple of people ready by tomorrow; where shall we meet you?”

“Just at the airport; the sooner we can get back to the SGC the better,” Daniel said, as he stood up and nodded thankfully at Hermione as he tossed the invisibility cloak back to the rest of SG-1. “How many seats should we book?”

“Well…” Hermione said, pausing thoughtfully for a moment before looking back at Daniel with a smile on her face, “I’ll be seeing about call four of our _older_ , _closer_ friends, not counting Tonks and myself… so you’d better get seven extra seats.”

For a moment, Daniel looked confused at that statement- Sam didn’t quite understand it herself- and then he smiled as inspiration apparently hit him.

“ _Oh_ ,” he said, grinning at Hermione as he nodded in understanding at her. “Got you; we’ll make the calls tonight.”

“What?” Mitchell said, looking in confusion at Daniel as he and Sam took up their positions on either side of Teal’c as the Jaffa shrugged the cloak back on. “What are you talking about?”

Daniel, however, didn’t answer; he just nodded briefly at Tonks and Hermione and then walked out of the room, leaving the now-invisible SG-1 with no other option but to follow him unless they wanted to lose track of him.

Personally, though, Sam didn’t particularly mind that Daniel was apparently going to keep another secret from them. Judging by the smile on his face, it was only because he wanted to surprise the a bit when the time came for their question to be answered, and, after all the trouble they sometimes had getting Daniel to do much more than just _grin_ for a few seconds- a grin that, unlike this smile, never reached his eyes…

Well, Sam, for one, wasn’t going to take away the reason he had to smile like that unless she had a good reason.


	14. Reunited at Last

The next day, the four members of SG-1 sat at the departure gate for the earliest possible flight back to Colorado Springs- due to begin boarding in only a few minutes- as arranged for them by General Landry via phone call; convincing the airline to clear the necessary number of seats to allow SG-1 and their allies to get back to Colorado as soon as possible had been difficult, but, eventually, they had been convinced to allocate the necessary number of seats to SG-1 and the forthcoming arrivals.

So far, however, Mitchell had yet to coax the reason for Daniel’s small smile out of his friend, and any attempts to ask Sam and Teal’c for help had met with nothing; Teal’c wasn’t interested enough to care about it either way, accepting that they would learn the reason for Daniel’s actions soon enough, while Sam just refused to take away the reason Daniel had to smile like that unless she had to. It was proving more than slightly frustrating to the lieutenant colonel that he was unable to get the answer to his question out of the team’s archaeologist, but, on some level, he understood Daniel’s reasons for keeping it quiet; it was more of a mater of principle- as the commanding officer, he hated being ignorant of information about his team- than anything else that prompted him to keep asking.

Eventually, with the time for the flight ever rapidly approaching them, Daniel glanced at the entrance and smiled slightly as he saw six figures entering the departures lounge, attracting the attention of the other SG-1 members as a broad smile split his face.

“It’s them,” he said, as he indicated the group of people in question. “They just came in with the big guy; you can’t miss them.”

* * *

  
Looking in the direction of the entrance gate, Sam had no trouble picking out who Daniel was referring to. Admittedly, it was easier to recognise them than it might have been under other circumstances given that Tonks and Hermione were in the group, both dressed in jeans, long-sleeved T-shirts and jackets. A pair of thin glasses perched on Hermione’s nose gave her a more intelligent, scholarly appearance, particularly with her hair pulled back in a business-like ponytail.

However, right now, it was the large man off to the side that attracted Sam’s attention instantly; even without Tonks and Hermione, Sam would have guessed that this was the man Daniel and Hermione had been referring to when they talked about getting an extra seat.

The man in question seemed to be almost the same size as the Stargate itself- although the scientist part of Sam noted that he was probably a foot or two shorter than the ‘gate- almost giving the impression of being too big to really be _allowed_ indoors, with a big bushy beard and dressed in a long leather jacket, red shirt, and dark trousers. He was so large that the crowd seemed to automatically part before him as he walked, and Sam privately wondered how he’d even managed to get into the airport in the first place. If it hadn’t been for the friendly, eager expression on his face as he looked at them, Sam had little to no doubt that she would have been scared of the man on sight alone; as it was, she suddenly felt sure that she could trust this man with her life, no matter how intimidating he seemed.

The other three men, by contrast, were significantly less physically imposing than the first man; for one thing, they were actually all regular height. One of them was a man dressed in shabby-looking clothes, giving the impression that he hadn’t been shopping for a while, his shaggy-looking hair adding to the instinctive impression he gave that he was almost a tramp of some kind. His face appeared slightly withdrawn, as though he was ill or something, but his eyes burned with a brilliant intensity that clearly showed a strong personality. Despite the age difference, the manner with which he and Tonks interacted made it clear to Sam that there was more between those two than mere friendship, a fact that was further proved when she noted the golden bands on their left fingers; if the two of them weren’t married- or at least engaged- Sam would be _very_ surprised.

The remaining two figures were, in their own way, equally distinctive, not least because both of them looked exactly identical to each other. They were two tall, red-haired twins, dressed in long, dark jackets that looked like some kind of leather over dark chinos and deep red shirts. Both of them had an expression on their faces that looked as though she were either preparing to laugh at some upcoming joke or stage a complex plan that would leave somebody royally humiliated, but, at the same time, there was something appealing about them.

Glancing back at Daniel, despite her currently conflicted feelings about this discovery of a past that Daniel had never shared with them, Sam allowed herself a small smile as she saw the broad grin on her friend’s face as he looked at the new arrivals.

“You know the other four, I take it?” she asked, indicating the group approaching them.

“Yeah…” Daniel said, smiling as he glanced back at her; Sam was surprised to actually see the faint glimmer of tears behind his glasses as he looked at her, before he swallowed slightly and stood up, glancing over at Mitchell and Teal’c, who were sitting on the other side of him. “Come on; I’ll introduce you.”

* * *

  
As he walked up to his old friends, Daniel smiled slightly as he saw the four new arrivals stare at him in surprise. It was easy to see that, even after everything they may have heard from Tonks and Hermione about his return, on some level, none of them had actually believed it until they saw him now. For a moment, he debated which one to address first, but that problem was sorted when Tonks and Hermione stepped back slightly, letting the other four step forward to look at him, awe evident on their faces.

Sensing, rather than seeing, the rest of SG-1 step back to give him a chance at a private ‘Hello’ at the moment, Daniel smiled as he walked forward to look at his old friends, taking care to control the tears that he still sensed brimming at the bottom of his eyes.

“Hi, guys,” he said, a slight croak in his voice as he spoke, looking at his old friends with an ever-increasing smile on his face. “It’s… it’s good to see you.”

“Harry…” the shabbily-dressed man said, staring at him incredulously, eyes wide as he took in the man standing before him. “Is… is it… really you?”

Glancing over at the man, Daniel smiled at the familiar face. He was pleased to see that the man actually looked healthier than he’d ever been back when he’d first been one of Harry’s teachers at Hogwarts; either he’d learned to cope with his ‘condition’ better, or there was a better way of dealing with it nowadays.

“Yeah, Remus,” he said, reaching over to place a hand on the shoulder of his father’s last living friend as he spoke. “I’ve changed a lot… but it’s really me.”

He shrugged apologetically. “Sorry it couldn’t be under better circumstances, of course… but I’m back.”

“Harry…” the deep, gruff voice that had first introduced him to the wizarding world said, its owner looking at him with that familiar warm smile mingled with tears. “Ah god… _Harry_ …”

Before Daniel could respond, the man had grabbed him and swept him up into a fierce hug, squeezing his ribs with such force that Daniel was grateful all the unarmed combat training he’d received over the years had toughened him up; if this had happened to him in the old days, something would probably have cracked.

“Uh… Hagrid…” he gasped, looking up at his oldest wizarding friend as he gasped slightly. “Glad to… see you again… as well… but… _oxygen_ …?”

“Oh… uh… right…” Hagrid said, smiling awkwardly as he released his hold and stepped back, although he continued to grin broadly at the archaeologist as he planted a large, firm hand on Daniel’s shoulder. “But _look_ at yer! Ye’ve done _brilliantly_ , from what I hear! _Three_ doctorates in the muggle world, and ye got them all yerself! In _cred_ ible!”

“Yeah… it _was_ pretty incredible for me, too,” Daniel said, smiling at the Hogwarts gamekeeper before he turned to look at the two twins, his smile becoming even broader as he studied them. “I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting to see _you_ here, though.”

“Well, Harry m’boy-” one of the twins said, grinning just as broadly back at Daniel.

“Or Daniel, if you prefer-” the other one said, his own face a copy of his brother’s (Sam could think of no other explanation for their identical appearances).

“When we heard-”

“That our beloved investor-”

“Not to mention our first financial backer-”

“And unofficial adopted brother-”

“Was back in the anti-Dark Lord game-”

“And needed help in dealing with a problem-”

“Of some _considerable_ scale, we gathered-”

“How could we refuse-”

“The chance and opportunity-”

“To help him out once more?”

Despite the seriousness of the situation they were still facing, Daniel couldn’t stop a slight chuckle at the twins’ antics as he gave them both a grateful, friendly pat on the shoulders.

“Thanks,” he said, giving the two long-time jokers a brief, affectionate smile before he turned back to his teammates, who were still waiting patiently for him to complete the introductions, deciding that he should clear up any of the obvious questions about who everybody was sooner rather than later.

“Well, time to get the introductions out of the way,” he said, beckoning his newer friends towards him with a brief gesture as he turned back to his older ones, exchanging a brief smile with Mitchell and Sam as they stood on either side of him, Teal’c standing on the other side of Mitchell.

“Everyone,” he said, looking at the wizarding arrivals as he indicated Sam, Mitchell and Teal’c, “these are my colleagues on SG-1; Lieutenant Colonels Cameron Cam’ Mitchell and Samantha ‘Sam’ Carter, and Teal’c. The new arrivals are Remus Lupin, former Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher and full-time werewolf, Rubeus Hagrid, Hogwarts gamekeeper and half-giant, and Fred and George Weasley, proud owners of wizarding joke shop Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes and pranksters extraordinare.”

* * *

  
Sam’s eyes widened slightly as she glanced back at Daniel.

“Weasley?” she asked, looking inquiringly at Harry. “As in… Ron and Ginny Weasley?”

“ _Precisely_ ,” one of the twins- Sam had no idea whether it was Fred or George- said, giving Sam a wide grin as he spoke; only the pain in his eyes made it clear that the topic of his two siblings remained a painful one for him, even almost two decades after they’d died. “They were our brother and sister respectively; we’ve known Harry/Daniel/whatever-he-wants-us-to-call-him here since he was only eleven years old and couldn’t even lift his luggage onto the school train by himself!”

“You know, just because I wasn’t exactly a prime physical specimen back then is no reason for you to keep going _on_ about that,” Daniel said, smiling affectionately over at the twins before his expression became more serious once more as he looked at the new arrivals. “I’m assuming Hermione and Tonks told you all about the situation we’re facing at the moment?”

“Aliens posing as gods, portals to other planets, and Voldemort’s apparently come back from the dead?” the other twin said casually. “Oh yeah; we’ve been filled in on the whole picture.”

Daniel blinked in surprise.

“You said his _name_?” he said, looking a the twin who’d just spoken in surprise.

“Is that unusual, Daniel Jackson?” Teal’c asked, looking curiously at his friend.

“Well… yeah, actually,” Daniel said, as he looked back at his Jaffa friend. “I didn’t mention it before, but back when Voldemort was in power, he made such a reputation for himself that most of the wizarding world were so terrified they couldn’t even say his _name_ ; even after I was thought to have ‘defeated’ him when I was a baby, they always called him ‘You Know Who’ or ‘He Who Must Not Be Named’. I could probably count the number of people who willingly spoke his name when I was growing up on one _hand_ …”

“Tell me about it; do you know how often I had to say the name just to convince my _staff_ to say it?” Hermione put in, rolling her eyes in mock exasperation as she looked at her old friend. “It was one of my major goals once I got back in office; stop _everybody_ in the wizarding world from being so backward and superstitious as to be afraid of just saying the _name_ of a _dead man_ …”

Then she paused and glanced over at Daniel, a not-so-serious look of frustration in her eyes as she looked at her old friend. “And now, of course, you tell me that he’s actually _not_ dead, meaning that I may have to start this whole thing all over _again_ …”

Daniel shrugged nonchalantly.

“Hey; that’s not my fault,” he said, looking back at Hermione with a slight grin on his face. “You’ve got a problem, take it up with whatever higher power thinks it’s fun to mess with us mere mortals like this; I didn’t do _anything_ to get Voldemort brought back from the dead once again.”

“Indeed; you could not have done so even when you were _capable_ of ‘messing with us mere mortals’,” Teal’c put in, looking over at his long-time friend and ally with a similar small smile on his face.

“Eh?” Hagrid put in, looking curiously over at Teal’c. “What do yer mean by that?”

“Nothing major; just… something that happened to me a few years back- it’s not really important,” Daniel said, before glancing over uncertainly at his teammates. “Uh… sorry to be rude, but, seeing as how we’ve still got a bit of time before the plane takes off, could you just let General Landry know who’s coming to help us while I make sure the new arrivals know _everything_ they need to know?”

For a moment, Sam felt like protesting- after al, surely they _all_ had a right to ‘brief’ people who were going to be their new allies in this latest crisis, and it hardly took all _three_ of them to make a call to Landry- but then she saw the slightly pleading expression in Daniel’s eyes and relaxed as she realised why he was doing this.

Even with the problem they were currently facing hanging over him, he wanted to have a chance to talk to his old friends for a little bit.

After spending nearly two decades away from them, how could Sam deny him a few minutes alone with them all?

“Sure thing,” she said, nodding in understanding at Daniel. “Cam, Teal’c, we’d better let Landry know who we’ve managed to recruit.”

* * *

  
As the other three members of SG-1 walked off to call the Stargate facility- Mitchell, Daniel noted with a smile, looking slightly disappointed that he wouldn’t have a chance to talk more with the wizards- Daniel turned to look at his old friends, a broad smile on his face.

“So… you’re all still doing well, then?” he asked, looking at the six of them inquiringly. They all seemed to be pretty healthy, of course, and he knew for a _fact_ that Tonks and Hermione had accomplished a great deal with their lives, but the others were more of a question-mark.

“Oh, _absolutely_ ,” Fred said, a broad grin on his face as he threw a friendly arm over his brother’s shoulders. “The joke business these days is pretty much _thriving_ ; we brought out Zonko’s a couple of years after the war ended, and since then we’ve been expanding our business to pretty much everywhere we can _get_ a shop set up!”

“Great,” Daniel said, smiling over at Fred and George with a mockingly casual grin on his face. “In that case, I suppose you’ve got the money to pay back my original investment at last, right?”

Fred and George’s eyes widened as they stared at Harry.

“Uh… _what_?” George said.

“Well, the way I see it, as your original investor, I _am_ entitled to a fair share of the profits of your little enterprise,” Daniel said, leaning back casually in his seat (Or as casually as he could; airport waiting areas had never struck him as entirely comfortable) as he looked at the twins. “Of course, in calculating the size of my investment you need to allow for interest rates over the years, but I think, taking into account that you probably wouldn’t even have been able to _start_ your shop if it wasn’t for me, I should probably be entitled to a majority share…” He let his voice trail off as he saw the growing expressions of horror on the faces of the twins.

“I’m _joking_ ,” he said, smiling broadly at them. “I make enough money in my current line of work; why would I want any more?”

“Still as jocular as ever, mmm?” Remus put in, chuckling slightly as Daniel turned to look at his old professor.

Daniel shrugged slightly, the smile falling a little from his face.

“Well… it comes and goes, really,” he said, after a moment’s pause. “My role in the Stargate Program… it’s brought me a lot of good memories- not to mention some incredible friends- but, at the same time… well, I’ve had to witness things that I’ve sometimes wished I didn’t.”

“Such as?” Tonks asked, looking inquiringly at Daniel.

“Oh… never mind; it was all a long time ago, and I’m over it,” Daniel said, inwardly cursing himself for his foolishness in bringing it up; he was _not_ going to get drawn into discussions of the various misfortunes that had befallen him since he became Daniel Jackson.

It had been hard enough dealing with the well-meaning but ultimately misguided sympathy of his friends and mentors back when he’d just been _Harry_ and was dealing with stuff like his connection to Voldemort; at least, on some level, they could _try_ to understand what that was like.

With him now considering himself more _Daniel_ than _Harry_ , and his problems including something that none of them could imagine- the knowledge that he’d been prevented from saving the planet that he’d regarded as a second home from destruction because some higher beings wouldn’t let him interfere- it would just be even _more_ complicated…

Then again, he needed to tell them _some_ details about his life; he might as well begin with the obvious questions about theirs and let them know some of the smaller details after they’d replied.

“Anyway, enough about me,” he said, looking over at Tonks and Remus with a small smile on his face.

“So,” he asked, indicating the hands of the metamorphagus and the werewolf with a casual grin, “shall I take it from the rings that you managed to make an honest man out of Moony while I was away?”

Remus turned away from Harry slightly, an awkward expression spreading across his face as he debated how best to answer Daniel’s question, but Tonks just smiled broadly over at the archaeologist.

“Yeah, but it took a while to make him get over his inferiority complex,” she said, affectionately squeezing her husband’s arm as she looked at Daniel. “I mean, _God_ , you couldn’t have stayed around long enough to make him see sense? I kept on telling him I didn’t care about the fact that he’d become wild and hairy in the full moon for _ages_ , and it _still_ took a good few months- practically a couple of _years_ , I might add- before he had to stop trying to come up with reasons to turn me down!”

“Same old Moony, eh?” Daniel said, looking over at Lupin with a criticising grin on his face. “Talking of which, how _is_ your ‘furry little problem’ these days?”

“Oh… more under control than it’s ever been, really,” Lupin said, smiling slightly at the son of his old friend. “Recent advances in the Wolfsbane potion mean that my condition’s reached a point where I can not only maintain control during the transformations, but I can actually _choose_ whether or not to transform in some occasions. It’s made it a bit easier for my career as an auror- when you learn how to control the transformation it makes for a remarkably effective means of tracking criminals- but I always end up feeling a bit… well, ‘hung-over’ is the only term I can think of that fits… afterwards.”

“Ah,” Daniel said, nodding sympathetically at him. “Hope you brought some of that, by the way; if you’re going through the Stargate with us, it couldn’t hurt to have some of the potion in case your transformation’s triggered when you go through.”

“Why?” Fred asked, looking curiously at Daniel. “If he’s OK _here_ -?”

“Fred, we have no way of knowing whether it’s just _our_ moon that has an effect on werewolves, remember?” Hermione said, looking critically over at her former would-be brother-in-law. “It might turn out that Earth’s moon is the only moon that affects werewolves, but equally, if Lupin goes to another planet where the moon’s in a different stage of its lunar cycle and he hasn’t got his potion on him, it could trigger his transformation and then we’d have a _werewolf_ on our hands on top of everything else we may be facing!”

“Ah,” Fred said, nodding briefly in understanding. “Got you.”

“Anyway,” Daniel said, deciding he might as well get back to his original topic of discussion as he looked at Tonks, “what do you call yourself now, anyway? Nymphorda Lupin? Nymphorda Lupin-Tonks? What?”

Tonks snorted harshly.

“As _if_ ,” she said, staring critically back at Daniel. “It’s _Tonks_ Lupin, thank you very much; I wasn’t going to keep _that_ name any longer than I had to.”

“Ah,” Daniel said simply before looking over at Fred and George. “How about you two? Settled down yet?”

“Now, Harry-” Fred began, his traditional broad grin spreading across his face.

“You should know-” George continued.

“Better than anyone-”

“That _we_ , my good man-”

“Are dedicated to our work!”

“We are committed-”

“ _Seriously_ committed, I might add-”

“Lifelong bachelors-”

“Dedicated solely to the cause-”

“Of bringing pranks and joy to the world!”

“Which means that Angelina and Katie still haven’t accepted your proposals yet, huh?” Daniel said, turning to look at Hermione. “Am I right?”

Hermione chuckled slightly as she looked at the twins, similar smiles on the faces of the other three as they looked at the red-headed pranksters.

“You’re right there,” she said, grinning back at the archaeologist as she spared a teasing glance at the Weasley twins. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, they’re both still _dating_ these two, but there are times when it’s more of a ‘friends with benefits’ thing than anything else.”

“Well, good to know some things never change,” Daniel said, grinning over at the twins once more- both of whom were actually looking slightly embarrassed at the ease with which Daniel had seen through their lie- before he looked over at Hagrid. “How about you, Hagrid? Settled down yet?”

“Eh… no’ really,” Hagrid said, shrugging uncertainly at Harry. “Bin spendin’ more time with Olympe recently, but… well, when yer get past the half-giant thing, there’s just not much there fer anything that ain’t friendship at best; she just doesn’t entirely get meh fondness fer interesting creatures.”

Daniel nodded sympathetically at Hagrid; it must have been hard for him to accept that the woman who, in many ways, he had more in common with than anyone he’d ever met, would never exactly be his ‘type’.

After all, in some ways it almost reflected how he felt about Sam; they sometimes seemed to have so much in common, and yet there could never be _anything_ there… because she was in love with his best friend.

Shaking his head to clear away that _very_ unwanted train of thought- he had more important matters to worry about than his love life- Daniel turned to look at Hermione, only for her to start speaking just as he opened his mouth.

“Before you ask, Harry,” Hermione said, responding to Daniel’s question before he could actually ask it, “I’m still single; it’s been a full-time job clearing out the corruption in the Ministry that settled into it at the end of the first war against Voldemort, so there hasn’t exactly been much _time_ for romance in my life…”

For a moment, Hermione looked as though she was about to say something more, but, looking at her, the man who had once been Harry Potter knew what she was about to start discussing and placed a comforting but halting hand on her shoulder to stop her.

If she’d started talking about Ron once again- the last man, to Daniel’s knowledge, that she’d _ever_ dated seriously, no matter how little time they’d actually spent together before he died- he somehow doubted either of them would have managed to maintain their composure.

As the two of them looked sympathetically at each other, for that brief moment in time, Daniel could almost swear that nothing had happened, that the last two decades had never taken place and they were still the closest friends each other had ever had…

But then the moment passed, and Daniel had to remind himself that it wasn’t the case. Oh, they were still friends, but after him spending two decades away making a career for himself _away_ from the wizarding world, while she went on to become the most powerful person _in_ it, they lacked some of the closeness that they’d possessed back in the day.

It was nobody’s _fault_ , of course- it was just the way things normally turned out after two friends spent almost twenty years apart- but still…

It kind of hurt to know that the old closeness was gone.

_Still_ , Daniel mused to himself with a slight smile, _that’s the beauty of life; hopefully, we can start again_.

“So,” Hermione said, looking at Daniel with a casual smile that broke through his train of thought before he could even begin it, “how about _you_ , may I ask?”

Despite the fact that he’d started this conversation to allow him to mention this particular issue in the first place, Daniel still felt a familiar twist of pain in his stomach as he recalled the events he would have to tell them about.

Even after six years, in some ways, the memory of the day he’d finally lost her still hurt…

“Well…” he sighed, as he looked around at his old friends, allowing himself a brief smile as he recalled the happier days of his life back then, “on our first mission through the Stargate, I _did_ end up married to a woman called Sha’re.”

“ _Married_?” Hermione yelled, her eyes widening in surprise as she stared at Daniel. Glancing over, the former Harry Potter was partly satisfied to see that the rest of the group looked just as shocked at that news, although precisely why that was the case he couldn’t be sure off the top of his head; maybe they’d just never guessed he’d actually get _married_.

Of course, the fact that his wife came from another _planet_ could also be involved

“What?” he said, looking at them in a casual manner as they stared at him incredulously. “Other planets have marriage too, you know. Besides, Sha’re was just as human as the rest of us; she was descended from some Egyptian slaves that the Goa’uld had taken to that planet millennia ago.”

“Oh,” Lupin said, after a moment’s pause while the rest of the group took in what Daniel had just said to them. “Well… that’s good.”

“So, when do we get to meet your better half?” Fred asked, looking at Daniel with a grin on his face; only the slightly saddened look in his eyes showed that he and his brother were recalling the sister who, if things had turned out better, would have become Harry’s wife some day…

But, like Sha’re, Ginny was no longer here.

“She… well, she’s dead,” Daniel said, sighing slightly as he took in the expressions of sympathy on their faces; he may resent it on some level, but at least they were sympathising with him for something they could at least _hope_ to relate to.

“About a year after the two of us married,” he continued, looking around at his old friends as he spoke, “she was abducted by the Goa’uld System Lord Apophis and used as the host for his ‘queen’ Amaunet. I spent my first three years in the Stargate program trying to bring her back- the project was closed down after we blew up the ship of the first Goa’uld we encountered, but we learned there were more of them out there a year later and the project assumed a new importance- but, eventually, it all ended when Amaunet tried to kill with a Goa’uld weapon; Teal’c was forced to kill Amaunet- and Sha’re with her- before she could kill me.”

He sighed in frustration as he bent over, his forehead clasped in his right hand as he stared at the floor. “ _God_ … the only _good_ thing about that memory is that at least I knew she wasn’t being tormented by Amaunet any more…”

“Oh my God…” Hermione whispered softly, reaching over to place a comforting hand on Daniel’s shoulder. “Harry… I’m sorry… I’m so, _so_ sorry…”

Looking back at Hermione, Daniel smiled slightly at his old friend.

“Thanks, Hermione,” he said simply, the faint gleam in his eyes the only sign that he was grateful for her comfort. “I… well, I appreciate that.”

“Uh… hello?” a voice said from behind them. Looking up, the assorted witches and wizards saw Sam standing behind them, a slightly awkward smile on her face as she looked at Daniel and Hermione, the witch’s hand still on the archaeologist’s shoulder. For a brief moment, Daniel could have sworn he saw a faint trace of jealousy in her eyes, but if it was there it faded away as soon as it had begun.

“Just thought you should know that our plane’s started boarding; Cam and Teal’c are already on board,” Sam said, indicating Hagrid with a small smile that almost managed to completely draw Daniel’s attention away from the almost hostile glare in her eyes as she looked at Hermione. “I thought that, given his size, it would be best if we got there as soon as possible; les chance of him tripping over any luggage on the way.”

“Fair enough,” George said, shrugging nonchalantly as he stood up, stretched slightly, and grinned over at Sam. “Lead on, my dear!”

* * *

  
“Never call me that again and I _won’t_ send you in the wrong direction,” Sam stated simply as she looked at the red-haired twin in front of her. She knew she was being somewhat overly hostile to him; he hadn’t even done anything to actually _annoy_ her, and here she was, taking out her pointless frustration on him.

After all, she’d already accepted that Daniel would want to spend time catching up with his old friends; she shouldn’t be feeling… _jealous_ of them, of all things!

But still… the sight of him sitting next to that ‘Hermione’ girl like that, him looking relaxed in a manner she didn’t recall ever seeing him look since Sha’re’s death… their evident closeness even after all the changes they’d gone through over the last decade or so…

Even as Sam turned around to show them the way to the plane, their new allies getting up to join her, she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was some _other_ reason for the way she was feeling that she couldn’t immediately put her finger on…


	15. Briefing for the Wizards

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To avoid any confusion, when I’m writing from the point of view of any wizarding characters, Daniel Jackson will be referred to as ‘Harry’, but will still be known as Daniel to the Stargate personnel; the wizards know him as Harry, so they’ll continue to think of him that way, just as the SGC personnel will think of him by the name they’ve known him as for longest

The next day, as Lupin stepped out of the jeep that had taken them from the airport to the mountain base that Harry- he still couldn’t think of the man he’d met yesterday at the airport as anything but Harry, even if everyone else called him Daniel- had worked in for the past decade or so, he could only think of one word to describe the facility before him.

_Remarkable_.

Glancing over at the Weasley twins, his wife, Hagrid and Hermione, Lupin noticed that they, at least, looked just as awed at the sight of the mountain facility before them as he did; they’d mostly taken the opportunity to catch up on their sleep on the flight over here, and they’d been in separate cars from Harry and his new friends on the trip down here, so they hadn’t had much chance to really talk with Harry about where he actually worked or what it was like.

Now that they were here, however…

Lupin had to admit, it was discoveries like this that helped him understand exactly _why_ Arthur Weasley found muggles so fascinating. The thought that they could create an entire facility inside this mountain on their own, without any magical assistance, using only time, patience, and muggle mining technology…

_It’s hard_ not _to be impressed at what they’re capable of when they try_ , Lupin mused to himself, as he studied the tunnels that their cars had entered the facility by. _They may not have magic, but that doesn’t make them weak by_ any _stretch of the imagination_.

“Incredible, huh?” a voice said from behind him; glancing around, Lupin saw Harry’s commanding officer- Cameron Mitchell, he believed the name was- standing behind him, looking at Lupin with a small smile. “Trust me; you wait ‘til you see the stuff from the storeroom.”

“Pardon?” Hermione put in, looking over at Mitchell in confusion. “Why would we be looking at stuff from a storeroom?”

“It’s got some examples of the technology we’ve uncovered in the years since we started using the Stargate, Hermione,” Harry put in from off to the side; Lupin had been so busy taking in his surroundings that he hadn’t noticed Harry and the other members of… SG-1, he believed the name was… joining them as they waited for the elevators down to the main facility. “If you’re going to be helping us deal with this new… alliance Voldemort seems to have set up with Hestia, it’s best you know what her forces will probably be capable of in a fight.”

“I contacted General Landry and asked him and Doctor Lee to prepare some of our alien technology for a demonstration for you all in the main briefing room,” Samantha Carter put in, smiling slightly over at the group as the lift doors finally opened, allowing the group to step in; fortunately, it was large enough to accommodate all ten of them relatively easily, although Hagrid had to crouch slightly to fit. “You’ll only get the essential details of what they use, but that should be enough to prepare you for what to expect.”

“ _Only_ the essential details?” Hermione asked, looking somewhat apprehensively over at Samantha. “No offence, but the last time I went into a situation where I only knew the essentials, I ended up in a coma-”

“And on an occasion when we travelled to a Stargate address that Daniel Jackson had discovered was the location of a Goa’uld invasion of Earth, we knew nothing about what we would encounter at the other end, and yet we succeeded in averting the destruction of Earth while escaping from both ships,” Teal’c put in, smiling slightly over at the wizards in a reassuring manner. “You may be assured that, in the situations we face on a regular basis, we are used to surviving confrontations even when we begin with only basic knowledge of the dangers we shall face on the other side; I am sure that the essential information shall be enough.”

“Oh,” Hermione said simply, after a moment’s pause to take in what Teal’c had just said to her.

Then her eyes widened slightly as she looked back at Harry.

“Hold on a minute; _you_ found the location of an alien invasion?” she asked, looking at him in confusion. “I thought you said you were just the archaeologist on this team; how did-”

“Firstly,” Harry interrupted, glaring critically at Hermione with an intensity that Lupin had never seen on his face back in the old days, “I’ve become a more than competent soldier in my time here, and have taken part in a variety of field missions; just because my official role is to translate languages and look at artefacts doesn’t mean that’s _all_ I do.”

Then his serious expression faded and he just smiled casually at her. “Secondly, you have a point; it _was_ rather unexpected for me to acquire that particular information. However, it was hardly a straightforward mission that gave me that information; long story short, I was accidentally sent into an alternate universe where I was never a member of the Stargate program and Earth was being attacked by the Goa’uld, found some information that included the Stargate address that the invasion had come from in the first place, and got back to this universe in time to avert the same invasion here.”

“Uh… alternate universe?” Fred put in, looking over at Harry in confusion. “What’s that all about?”

“Basically,” Samantha interjected, looking over at Fred, “it ties into this theory held by many scientists that there are an infinite number of dimensions, each containing a different possibility of the reality we live in, diverging at every choice we make like forks in a road; say, for example, in some reality out there there’s probably a reality where Ron and Ginny Weasley _didn’t_ die fighting this ‘Voldemort’ person, or a world where Daniel didn’t decide to leave the… wizarding world,” (Lupin noted that she was still clearly uncomfortable with the concept of magic, but was prepared to accept it for the moment) “or maybe even a world where some of you came with him and ended up working on the Program with us a long time ago. Somewhere out there, every decision we don’t make in this world _has_ been made, and, as a result, events in that world turned out very differently than they have in this one.”

“In the first year of the program, Daniel Jackson discovered a device that we came to know as the Quantum Mirror, which allowed the user to travel to an alternate universe,” Teal’c explained, taking up the story as the elevator neared its destination of the twelfth floor; if Lupin remembered correctly, they’d need to leave their current elevator here to change elevators for the rest of the descent down into the complex. “As he told you, when he came in contact with this mirror, he was sent to another world where he had never joined the Stargate Program, and eventually came back here with the Stargate address for the location where two Goa’uld motherships were waiting to launch an invasion against the Tau’ri.”

“The wha?” George asked, looking at Teal’c in renewed confusion as the elevator finally stopped.

“The Tau’ri is the name given to your people by the Goa’uld,” Teal’c explained, as the elevator stopped and they stepped out into the corridor that would take them to the other elevator. “In your language, the closest translation would be ‘The First Ones’; your people originate on the first planet where the Goa’uld discovered the human race, and you have thus attained a somewhat legendary status among the Goa’uld even before Earth once again became involved in galactic affairs.”

“Wait; we’re _legends_?” Fred interjected, looking over at Teal’c with a broad smile on his face. “ _Cool_!”

“Indeed,” Teal’c said, nodding briefly at Fred before continuing. “With the information provided by Daniel Jackson, SG-1 was able to travel to that address and, with the aid of my teacher Bra’tac, we successfully destroyed both ships.”

“Really?” Hermione said, looking over at Harry with a smile on her face. “Even after all these years, you’re still saving the world?”

“Well… it’s not _exactly_ the same,” Harry said, looking back at Hermione as he spoke. “For one thing… I _chose_ to do it this time around.”

“Eh?” Hagrid said, looking over at Harry in confusion. “What do yer mean by that?”

“Well… back when I fought Voldemort, I may have wanted to kill him even _without_ the prophecy, but I still _had_ to do it,” Harry explained, as he looked back at his old friends while they stepped into the second elevator. “Some talks I had with Dumbledore helped me deal with my resentment of that fact, but I still felt as though I didn’t really have a _choice_ in the matter: Voldemort wanted to kill me, so I had to kill him; I’d been given that link with Voldemort without actually _wanting_ it; I’d acquired this reputation as a great wizard without actually _doing_ anything to earn it…”

He sighed, placing one hand against the elevator wall as he spoke- Lupin noted that they were heading down to level Twenty-Seven- and then glanced back at his old Hogwarts friends. “But here, at the SGC…”

He shrugged slightly as he smiled over at Samantha and Teal’c. “It may be just as hard, if not _harder_ , than fighting Voldemort, but at least I _chose_ to do it this time around, rather than having someone else _make_ me do it.”

“Oh,” Hermione said, in a small, quiet voice as she looked at Harry.

Lupin had to admit, he thought he could understand how she felt; in all the time he’d known Harry, he’d never guessed that Harry felt like _that_ about his role as the ‘saviour of the wizarding world’. He knew that Harry was never exactly happy about the fact that he never had the chance to live a normal life, but he’d always assumed that Harry had come to accept it in the end; if nothing else, he hadn’t seemed to _complain_ much about what he’d had to do after Dumbledore’s funeral.

Still… it made sense that Harry would have come to resent it, Lupin supposed; after all, as he’d said, he hadn’t had much _choice_ in the matter.

“So… what kind of people do you _encounter_ in this kind of work?” Hermione asked, looking curiously at Harry. “I mean, apart from the obvious detail of those parasitic aliens posing as gods you told us about?”

“Well, we defeated them last year- we’ve got about one major Goa’uld left active and that’s it- but we _do_ still have the Asgard running about,” Mitchell put in, casually grinning over in her direction, evidently enjoying the sight of her jaw dropping in shock as she stared at him.

“Wait; the _Asgard_?” she said, staring incredulously at SG-1’s new commanding officer. “As in, the home of the Norse Gods? You’re saying that the _Norse Gods EXIST_?”

* * *

  
“Well, ‘Asgard’ is actually the name of their _species_ , rather than the name of their _home_ \- their planet’s called Orilla- and they look like the stereotypical little grey big-eyed aliens rather than massive humans- that image was just a hologram they used until they knew a species was ‘mature’ enough to perceive their real form- but otherwise you’re pretty much right,” Mitchell replied, continuing to smile at Hermione’s incredulous expression. “Actually, this entire program’s on good terms with the Supreme Commander of the Asgard fleet, who’s commonly known to us on Earth as Thor; we’ve helped him out on-.”

“ _Thor_?” Fred and George yelled in surprise, surprised yet eager grins on their faces as they looked at Mitchell; somehow, the Lieutenant Colonel doubted they’d actually been paying much attention to anything he’d said after that name.

“You’re telling us our esteemed financial backer is friends with an alien so advanced he was able to pose as the _God_ of _Thunder_?” Fred said, looking over at Daniel with an increasingly broad grin on his face.

“Well, we’re not _close_ friends; Jack O’Neill- our commanding officer before Cameron- was the one who really made contact with them originally-” Daniel tried to interrupt.

“Daniel, they named their most advanced class of _ship_ after you,” Sam said, smiling over at him as the elevator drew ever closer to the meeting floor. “I think it’s pretty clear that they hold you in just as high esteem as they do Jack these days.”

“They named a _ship_ after you?” Hermione said, staring at Daniel in ever-growing incredulity.

“Well, it’s not like I _asked_ them to do it…” Daniel said, smiling awkwardly at his old friend as the elevator stopped on the twenty-seventh floor and the doors opened. “Anyway, we’re here now; let’s go.”

Casually attempting to ignore Fred and George’s repeated attempts to ask for further information about the Asgard- he’d bring the matter up again if it was relevant, but not before- Daniel joined Sam as she opened the door to the main briefing room. Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait for General Landry to show up; he was already sitting at the head of the table, looking patiently at them as they entered the room.

“Ah, there you are,” he said, a small smile on his face as he stood up. “I heard from the entrance staff that you were coming and thought I should be here. I presume these are your old friends, Doctor Jackson?”

“Yes, they are,” Daniel said, smiling slightly as he turned to look at his Hogwarts ‘gang’. “General Landry, this Hermione Granger, Minister of Magic, Fred and George Weasley, pranksters extraordinaire, Rubeus Hagrid, gamekeeper and expert on any magic-related animal, and Remus and Tonks Lupin, expert dark-wizard-catchers- Lupin’s also a werewolf, but that’s neither here nor there.”

Nothing Landry’s somewhat sceptical look, Daniel smiled in a reassuring-yet-sheepish manner. “They’re a mis-matched bunch, I know, but trust me; they’re good at what they do.”

“Doctor Jackson…” Landry sighed, as he looked critically at the younger man, “I don’t doubt that they’re competent, but we might have a problem in terms of them actually having anything to _do_ here.”

Daniel blinked.

“What?” he said, looking in surprise at his superior. “What do you mean?”

“I just got off the phone with Agent Woolsey before you all got back,” Landry explained, Daniel opened his mouth to speak, but Landry raised a hand to stop him. “Don’t worry, I didn’t tell him about the wizard thing; I just said that we’d had a break-in by an Earth cult that you’d encountered in the past who’d discovered about the Stargate via unknown means- I made it clear that we’re working on how that happened- and you’d contacted some old friends who knew that cult to help us deal with the problem…”

“And, in a nutshell, he told you that we need to focus on the Priors rather than some dumb human cult that thinks it can make an alliance with the remaining Goa’uld?” Mitchell put in, sighing in frustration as he glanced over at Sam and Daniel. “Some things never change; that guy _never_ listens to us until it’s too late…”

“Eh… who are we talkin’ ‘bout here?” Hagrid asked, looking in confusion at Daniel. “Woolsey? Priors?”

“Oh, Woolsey’s a representative of the IOA- International Oversight Advisory, if you want to know- which was set up a few years back to monitor Stargate operations and ensure that we share any technology we acquire via the Stargate with the other countries involved,” Sam explained, a slightly frustrated expression on her face. “Woolsey’s the US member of the IOA, which essentially exists to review the actions we take in the field without actually understanding the _risks_ we take in such a situation; they once _insisted_ we keep a human who’d been genetically engineered into the ultimate soldier by an old enemy of ours on the base instead of just freezing him because they thought he might teach us how to counter the Priors in the field

“As for the Priors…” Mitchell said, sighing slightly as he looked at the wizards, “Well, with the fall of the Goa’uld, they’re our new bad guys; Jackson can probably give you more info than I can.”

His old friends glanced over inquiringly at him, and Daniel sighed as he began to explain.

“To put it simply,” he said, as he looked around at them, “the Priors are enhanced humans with highly evolved brains- thus giving them access to enhanced mental abilities- who originate from another galaxy, and are now attempting to convince the entire Milky Way galaxy to follow their religion. The main ‘catch’ of this is that their religion involves worshipping beings of pure energy who draw power from the faith of their worshippers and kill anybody who doesn’t believe they’re the gods they claim to be.”

Despite himself, Daniel couldn’t help but once again enjoy the stunned look on Hermione’s face as she stared incredulously at him; evidently she was finding it hard to believe, but was prepared to accept it at least for the moment.

_Classic Hermione_ , Daniel thought to himself, smiling slightly. _Can’t really believe anything until she’s got actual_ proof _it exists…_

“Fortunately,” he continued, deciding he might as well put their minds at rest on the matter of the Priors, silently resolving to tell Hermione more about the Ori when the time was right, “there aren’t that many of them- the Ori can only send one Prior to a world at a time, and we haven’t seen any sign of them sending armies through the Stargates- but they’re still a matter for concern. We’ve developed a means of briefly negating a Prior’s powers, but they’re still a very real threat to the post-Goa’uld galaxy, and we’ve been working on finding ways to stop them permanently for the last few months.”

He sighed slightly as he leaned over a seat, staring at the wall before him. “But, right now, given that he’s actually got a small _army_ \- both Death Eater and Jaffa- following him, coupled with the fact that he’ll only be building it up by working with any Goa’uld he manages to find out there, Voldemort’s got to be our more immediate priority.”

“Agreed,” Teal’c said, nodding as he looked at Daniel. “The Priors are dangerous, but they are only individuals; eliminating them serves to eliminate the danger they may pose, and that is the end of the matter. By contrast, if he is not dealt with soon, with his powers and followers, Voldemort may go on to become as great a threat as any Goa’uld; we cannot allow that to take place.”

“Plus, there’s the danger of what could happen if this sucker actually _met_ a Prior…” Mitchell muttered to himself, before his eyes widened and he looked up rapidly at the others. “Sorry; shouldn’t have said that; no point in giving us _maybes_ to worry about…”

“No… as unpleasant a prospect as it is, it’s something we need to consider, which makes it all the more apparent we _ensure_ that Woolsey can’t criticise us for ‘wasting time’ going after him,” Daniel said, sighing as he looked over at Hermione. “Think we can use some of your Ministry contacts to make Woolsey see sense about the Voldemort situation? You know, convince him that Voldemort’s an immediate threat who _has_ to be dealt with, that we’ll get back to the Priors as soon as possible, that kind of thing?”

Hermione shrugged. “Shouldn’t be too difficult,” she said nonchalantly as she looked over at Landry. “All you need to do, General, is tell this ‘Woolsey’ guy to ask the President to let the AMD- those _exact_ words; the AMD- know that Hermione Granger of the BMM is giving this mission her full approval, as well as being prepared to vouch for its authenticity, and everything should be OK.”

“Sorry; can we back up a bit here?” Mitchell interjected, looking inquiringly at Hermione. “Who or what are the BMM and the AMD?”

“The British Ministry of Magic and the American Magical Division respectively,” Hermione replied, looking back at Mitchell. “Unlike the British Ministry of Magic, which formed long before the muggle one and has remained a separate entity ever since, the American wizarding government is incorporated directly into the muggle government. One of the founding fathers was a wizard- I can’t say _who_ , unfortunately; it’s one of those things that the history books of the time fail to talk about much, probably because the Ministry of the time hated to give the impression that they were _less_ than perfect- included a department of the government devoted to running the wizarding world without getting into conflict with the muggle President. In large scale magic-related matters in America, the AMD has full authority to make the final decision regardless of what the President thinks, but in general they try to cooperate with him while otherwise staying in the shadows; they won’t make any official moves to interfere with his decisions, and he won’t ask them for help unless he’s _sure_ he needs it.”

“Oh, is that why we’ve never heard of them until now?” Sam put in, looking at Hermione with that eagerly curious expression that Daniel recognised whenever they made a prominent scientific discovery. “We’ve never _needed_ to know about them, so they’ve never contacted us to offer their assistance?”

“Exactly,” Hermione said, before looking over at Daniel with a small smile. “Though in all fairness, not even Harry here could have told you about them if he thought they were needed, for the simple reason that, up until I took office, the Ministry preferred to pretend to the general British wizarding public that the AMD didn’t exist, so it’s only American wizards who actually know anything about them.”

She sighed in frustration. “Personally, I think some of the pure-blood families back then were just afraid that some of the muggle-borns would move over to America and try a reformation movement of some sort; the American wizard population mainly consists of those witches and wizards who resented some of the restrictions in the British wizarding world.”

Noting the curious glances of the rest of SG-1, Hermione shrugged. “It’s like racism and sexism in the muggle world, really; just because there weren’t any actual rules _against_ muggle-borns getting anywhere back in the old days didn’t mean that some people didn’t pass over muggle-borns in favour of ‘pure-bloods’ when the time came to promote people to better positions. I’ve been working on reformation programs since I started my career as Minister, but there’s some way to go before I stamp out all the corruption that had taken over the Ministry prior to me taking office.”

“Ah,” Mitchell said, before he shrugged and turned back to Landry. “Anyway, now that we’ve got that out the way, shall we get on with the demonstrations?”

“Of course,” Landry said, smiling casually at the wizards. “With Colonel carter away, we’ve had the second-in-command of our science department- a Doctor Bill Lee- prepare a brief explanation of the traditional Goa’uld weaponry you’re likely to be facing; he’ll be here in a minute or two, so feel free to take your seats.”

The wizards had only just sat down in the various chairs- Hagrid had to remain standing, but otherwise everybody, wizard and SG-1 member alike, was sitting around the table- when the briefing room door opened, admitting the short, slightly overweight form of Doctor Lee walked into the briefing room, carrying the default weapons of the Goa’uld in his hands.

“Ah, good to meet you all,” he said, nodding briefly at the new arrivals before he took up his position at the end of the table. “General Landry has already explained the essential details of the situation to me; I understand you’re some old friends of Doctor Jackson, here to help us deal with an Earth cult who’ve allied themselves with the remaining Goa’uld?”

“Essentially, yes,” Lupin said, nodding in the affirmative at the man before him, privately noting that the man hadn’t specifically mentioned the ‘wizard’ part of their presence; either he didn’t know, or he was just not thinking about it.

Of course, given that he kept on looking at their wands, placed on the tables before them, with a mixture of disbelief and awe, the odds seemed good that this ‘Doctor Lee’ _did_ know what they were…

“So, what can you tell us about the weapons we’re likely to be dealing with?” Tonks put in, breaking off Lupin’s train of thought; for all her clumsiness, when it came to combat, Tonks could cut straight to the point like few people of Lupin’s acquaintance.

“Well, SG-1 can probably give you just as good an idea, but I’ll do what I can at the moment” Doctor Lee said, placing the smaller weapons on the table and picking up a long staff. “This is a staff weapon, the default Goa’uld weapon of choice. This weapon uses a sample of liquid naquadah- a rare mineral that serves as the power source for many Goa’uld technology- to fire concentrated bursts of plasma at the target, rarely causing a wound that is less than fatal. Admittedly, it lacks the accuracy of our weapons, but it’s still a dangerous weapon, pretty much unable to run down in a fight situation.

“Zat guns, on the other hand,” Lee continued, placing the staff down and picking up the zat, “have the general advantages of being smaller, more compact, and being debilitating wherever they hit you; one shot knocks you out, the second kills, and the third disintegrates your body.”

“Charming,” Tonks muttered, wincing slightly as she looked at the admittedly rather stylish-looking gun.

“Then, of course, there’s this,” Doctor Lee continued, picking up “While not exactly a weapon, the hand device is the customary personal weapon of the Goa’uld themselves; when used properly, the hand device can torture people by probing their minds, emit a shockwave that sends people flying, generate a shield that deflects most weapons, and serve as a remote activator for most Goa’uld technology. As mentioned, it can only be used by anybody who’s been a host to a Goa’uld symbiote- or, of course, is a host at present- but their rarity doesn’t make them any less dangerous.”

“We also have the various assorted Goa’uld ships, but since we’ll be handling that side of things, we won’t go into too much detail there; you needed to know what the hand-held weapons can do, and you’ve got that,” Mitchell finished, smiling casually at the wizards sitting around him. “So, what do you think?”

Staring at the weapons before her for a moment, her chin in her hand as she nodded thoughtfully, Hermione finally glanced over at Daniel with an inquiring expression.

“Have you ever tried using magic against these?” she asked, indicating the weapons lying before them. “The Shield Charm for the staff blasts, Stunners for the hand device, that kind of thing?”

Daniel shook his head.

“No, never; I never really needed to use magic before Voldemort showed up, to be honest,” he said, before he noticed Sam’s expression- a critical-yet-amused glare in his direction- and amended his earlier sentence. “I mean, I never actually had my wand on me before now- I was trying to get on in the world _without_ my magic, after all- so I haven’t really had the chance to see what effect charms would actually have on Goa’uld technology.”

“Right then,” Hermione said, nodding briefly as she looked back at Landry. “Any chance we could borrow a couple of those to see how our spells work against them?”

“Of course,” Landry said, before glancing over at Daniel, Teal’c and Carter. “Colonel Carter, Teal’c, you three help them out with that; Colonel Mitchell, Doctor Jackson, once they’re finished, you’re in charge of giving our new friends a quick ‘crash course’ in working on an SG team.”

“Check,” Mitchell said, nodding in confirmation as he glanced over at his teammates. “That OK with you?”

“Seems fine,” Daniel said, nodding in agreement as he turned to look at his old friends. “Fine with you?”

“Sure thing,” Hermione said, backed up by supporting nods from the other wizards. Then she smiled casually as she glanced over at Carter. “Plus, I wouldn’t mind learning more about what Harry’s been up to over the last few years…”

Somehow, when he saw the grin on Hermione’s face, the man once known as Harry Potter wasn’t sure if he should be more concerned about Hermione and Sam exchanging stories about him than he should be concerned about Voldemort’s resurrection; at lest Voldemort couldn’t potentially _humiliate_ him to the woman he-

Not _going to think about that, remember_? Daniel criticised himself, as he and the others stood up, ready to leave the briefing room. He had enough issues on his plate with his oldest enemy coming back to life; he did _not_ need to start thinking about something that he could _never_ achieve on top of everything else.

“Well, let’s go,” Mitchell said casually as he looked around at the others. “Only got time to give you the basics- I doubt we want to give this Voldemort guy any more time than we _have_ to- so we’ll just take a couple of hours and then be off, OK?”

“Agreed,” Landry said, nodding in affirmative at the various men and women before him. “I’ll have the gate ready to be dialled in a couple of hours; I’ll let you know when we’re ready for you.”


	16. Questioning the Old and New

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Although the chapter is divided into two sections, they both begin at pretty much the same time, just after the two groups have parted ways to head for different elevators (They’re both heading for different floors, after all); it doesn’t really impact on either of them, but I just thought I’d clarify that

“So,” Hermione asked, as she, Tonks and Lupin followed Sam and Teal’c out of the briefing room- it had been decided that Fred, George and Hagrid would receive the ‘briefing’ on proper procedure for SG teams due to their lesser skills in duelling, while the other three tested how spells worked against Goa’uld weaponry on the Level Seventeen ‘firing range’- and towards the elevators that would take them closer to the room where magic and Goa’uld technology would meet for the first time, “what else can you tell me about what Harry’s been up to here since he left us?”

“He’s already told you the essential details; why do you want to know anything else?” Sam asked, glancing back at the two witches and one wizard as she pressed the button for the lift and stepped back to wait. “If Daniel doesn’t want to tell you something, I’m not going to betray his trust by telling you about it behind his back.

“I’m not asking for anything _major_ ; I just want to know some examples of what he does here apart from translate stuff,” Hermione replied, shrugging slightly as she looked back at the lieutenant-colonel with an equally tense stance. Off to the side, Teal’c exchanged a somewhat uncertain glance with Lupin and Tonks, but their anxious return glances did little to reassure him; evidently, they were just as uncertain about the motives behind this ‘confrontation’ between the two women as he was. “What he’s discovered, where he’s been, what kind of people he’s met on his trips through this ‘Stargate’ of yours…”

“And, as I told you, whether or not Daniel wants to tell you anything about that is his _own_ concern,” Sam retorted, folding her arms as she looked at Hermione. She knew she was being more than slightly petty for no real reason- after all, Daniel hadn’t even _seen_ this woman in almost twenty years

“He’s changed a lot since you knew him, and you need to accept that,” the scientist continued, bringing her mind back to the matter at hand as she stared critically at the British Minister of Magic. “Just because you may have known everything about him back _then_ doesn’t mean you have the right to know everything about him _now_.”

“And you think you _do_ have the right to know everything about him?” Hermione retorted, also folding her arms as she stared at the Air Force officer before her; the other three were currently starting to wonder whether they should just take the stares and leave the two women to work their apparent issues out in the lift on their own. “From what I gather, he never even _told_ you about his past at Hogwarts- or, indeed, anything about his life as a _wizard_ in the first place- up until now-”

“He had no _reason_ to do that and he wanted to forget it; why should I blame him for _that_?” Sam retorted with a brief glare at the other woman as the lift doors finally opened; Lupin, Tonks and Teal’c slipped in past the two women to get inside the elevator first, leaving the two of them to just step into the front of the elevator while continuing to stare harshly at each other. “If he doesn’t want to talk to me about something, I’m prepared to respect his wishes. Besides, It’s not like he _lied_ to me, anyway; I never really asked him for more details-”

“So now that you know there _was_ more to his past than you thought at first, you think that gives you the right to _ask_ for more?” Hermione interrupted. “You know, I may not know that much about Harry these days, but I’d _never_ push him for information under _any_ circumstances-

“ _I am_ not _pushing him_ ,” Sam stated bluntly, glaring harshly at the witch before her as she spoke. “I haven’t even _tried_ to ask him for further information about his time at ‘Hogwarts’ or whatever it’s called; I learned a long time ago that getting information out of Daniel when he _wants_ to give it to you is easy enough, but it’s less easy to do so when he doesn’t, so there’s no point even trying it. If he wants to tell me it, he will; if he doesn’t, he won’t, and I’ve come to realise that I’ll have to accept that about him.”

For a moment, there was silence as the two women continued to stare at each other- Teal’c, Tonks, and Remus prepared themselves for the worst when the two of them began to talk once more…

Then, much to their surprise, Hermione actually smiled slightly at the other woman before her, lacking any of the initial hostility of her previous comments.

“He _can_ be a bit stubborn like that, can’t he?” she said, a slight smile on her face as she looked at the blonde astrophysicist. “I mean, you wouldn’t _believe_ how hard it was to get him to talk about something that was troubling him in the old days; we probably spent about _half_ the time thinking that he was doing fine when actually he’d screwed up and just wanted to handle it himself…”

“Trust me, he hasn’t changed; he practically _never_ tells us when something’s bothering him even now,” Sam replied, a small smile spreading across her own face as she looked at Daniel/Harry’s old friend. “The number of times he’s tried _not_ to tell us how much he’s in pain from an injury or an illness of some kind… I mean, he was suffering from appendicitis at one point, but kept on trying to cope with it himself up to the point when he collapsed in his office.”

Noting Hermione’s suddenly shocked expression, Sam shrugged in a helpless manner as she looked at her new friend. “In his defence, he _thought_ that it was just a bad stomach-ache, or maybe a side-effect of this recent accident on a mission that caused him to turn intangible; he never even _suspected_ it might have been something more serious until he was actually examined.”

“Yep, that’s Harry all over; _really_ not very good at sharing how he feels about _anything_ …” Lupin said, chuckling briefly at the memory before he looked over at Teal’c, a suddenly saddened expression on his face. “Uh… is he any better at… well, talking about _himself_? I mean, I always saw him as a nephew, but, at the same time, I couldn’t help but think that he could be a bit more… open… about his feelings, really.”

“Unfortunately, Daniel Jackson remains just as uncommunicative about his feelings about subjects that are bothering him in the present as he is uncommunicative about his past life unless something occurs that requires him to tell us about it,” Teal’c replied, as the elevator stopped and the group stepped out into the corridor. “He only told us about the events surrounding his confrontations with Voldemort when it was clear that the truth was the only option that would be acceptable, and he even told us few details about the fake life he had created for himself to escape his life as a wizard.”

Tonks blinked in surprise.

“He created a _fake_ life to account for his time at Hogwarts?” she asked, looking over in surprise, and no small amount of curiosity, at Teal’c. “How does _that_ work?”

“As we understand it, he contacted a wizarding version of the American witness protection program, who provided him not only with fake documentation to account for his existence in what I believe you refer to as the ‘muggle’ world,” Teal’c explained. “According to Daniel Jackson, this included false memories to prevent anyone from learning the truth about him by simply reading his mind, as they would ‘read’ the false memories before the true ones and assume that they were genuine. These memories have become incorporated into his mind, although he still recalls his original life; he told us that he tends to think of his life as a combination of his time at Hgowarts and the time he spent growing up with Claire and Melbourne Jackson.”

“Ah,” Hermione said, looking uncomfortably over at Sam as the astrophysicist began to slow down as she approached a certain door in the corridor. “Uh… what was his new life _like_? I mean, y’know, memories of a whole life as somebody else…”

“He didn’t tell us much about _it_ either,” Sam said, shrugging apologetically as she walked up to a nearby door and opened it, waving the group in as she continued speaking. “He didn’t want to have to lie to people he considered friends, so he created a fake life that basically matched some of the essential details about his past without all the details such as magic; in the new life he created for himself, his parents died when he was young and he was shifted around through various foster homes until he went to university, at which point the ‘other’ life he created for himself ends and his real life pretty much… ‘link up’, for lack of a better term.”

“His parents died at a young age?” Lupin asked, looking over at the astrophysicist with a suddenly uncertain expression on his face. “Uh… if you don’t mind me asking…”

“Claire and Melbourne Jackson were crushed by an Egyptian coverstone while setting up an exhibit while Daniel Jackson was only eight years old,” Sam replied simply. She knew it was a bit of an odd way to phrase the answer, but she felt it was the appropriate one; if Daniel regarded his memories of Claire and Melbourne as being just as genuine as his memories of his time at Hogwarts, she would continue to think of them as having been real people.

Maybe they had never existed in the 'real' world, but they existed for Daniel, and, as far as she was concerned, that was enough.

After everything she’d heard from him about the Dursleys on the flight over to England, she wasn’t going to even _begin_ to think about the fact that the only decent parents Daniel had ever had didn’t, technically, exist; he remembered a life with them, and that was all that really mattered.

“Oh,” Hermione said, clearly uncertain what she should say next, as she continued to study the room they’d entered before her eyes fell on a familiar pile of objects in the middle of the room. “Um… are those the weapons we’ll be practicing with?”

“Indeed,” Teal’c said, as he picked up the staff weapon from the table and glanced critically at the three wizards standing before him. “Now then, which of you three would prefer to test the effects of this against your defensive capabilities?”

* * *

  
“So…” Hagrid asked, looking curiously over at Daniel as the five men walked towards the lift that would take them to another storeroom- if nothing else, it was one of the few rooms in the base that Hagrid would be able to stand in without needing to crouch slightly- to begin the wizard’s ‘briefing’, “apart from these Goa’uld things- and those ‘Asgard’ yer mentioned- have ye all ever encountered any… _other_ aliens?”

“Would you like the list?” Mitchell asked, smiling over at Hagrid as they approached the lift. “Because trust me, it is a _very_ diverse one.”

“Wait; there’s _more_ out there than those two races out there?” Fred put in, looking eagerly over at Daniel. “How many?”

For a moment, Daniel looked uncertainly at Mitchell, before Mitchell shrugged.

“Hey, they’ve already got clearance to be here, and they already know about keeping secrets for a long time; it’s my call to make, and I’m making it,” he said, nodding affirmatively at his friend.

“Thanks,” Daniel said briefly, before looking back at his old friends as they stepped into the elevator. “To answer your question, there’s a significant amount of aliens out there; some of the most prominent ones we’ve encountered include the Unas, the Nox, the Replicators, the Ancients, and the Wraith.”

“Which are?” George inquired, looking eagerly over at Daniel.

“Well, the Unas are dinosaur-like aliens who were originally used as hosts by the Goa’uld before they found us and thought we were better hosts than those guys,” Mitchell explained, a slight smile on his face as he looked at the eager expressions on the twins’ faces, so much like his own expression when he and his colleagues had initially learned about the Stargate. “The Nox are a peaceful race who can heal others and possess some _seriously_ advanced technology, but generally assume a pacifist stance in any conflict they get involved in.”

“The Ancients- as Hermione may have already mentioned to you- were the race who originally built the Stargates,” Daniel continued, looking casually over at the twins as they finally reached the lift and walked into it. “They were struck by a terrible plague centuries ago, but managed to escape death by learning how to… well, long story short, they learned how to evolve _beyond_ their physical bodies and exist as pure energy, a state that they continue to exist in to this day.”

The twins’ eyes widened in surprise at that, but Hagrid spoke before either of them could get a word in.

“Hold on; they exist as _energy_?” the gamekeeper said, looking in surprise as his old friend. “How’s that e’en _possible_?”

As he pushed the button that would take the elevator up to the floor that the storerooms were located on, Daniel shrugged apologetically at the man who’d first taught him about the wizarding world.

“As to that, I’m not entirely sure myself,” he said, which was only a half-truth; he did have _some_ idea what was involved in the process of Ascension, but it was nothing concrete, and he didn’t feel quite ready yet to tell his old friends about him dying and Ascending at the moment. “All I know is that it works; my wife had a child while she was under the control of that Goa’uld I told you about, and, after spending about a year being ‘raised’ by one of the Ancients to follow their teachings, he managed to shed his physical form and join them as a being of pure energy.”

“Really?” Hagrid asked, looking at Daniel with wide eyes. “Wow… that’s jus’… _incredible_ …”

“I know,” Daniel replied, nodding at Hagrid with a slight smile before looking back at Fred and George (Who, he was pleased to note, looked just as shocked at his latest revelation as Hagrid had). “Unfortunately, the last of those two species- the Replicators and the Wraith- are both, in their own way, almost worse than the Goa’uld; fortunately, all Replicators were annihilated last year and the Wraith are in another galaxy altogether, so you definitely won’t be dealing with _them_ any time-”

“Hold on; another _galaxy_?” George interjected, looking incredulously at Daniel. “How’d you know about aliens from _another_ galaxy?”

“Oh, we sent an expeditionary force over there about a year before I joined the program,” Mitchell explained as he glanced over with a small smile at the twins, taking up the story once more. “The Ancients moved this massive ‘city ship’ of theirs over to that galaxy some centuries back- the city in question went on to inspire the Atlantis myth, if you’re interested- and when we discovered the Stargate address for the place, we sent a team over there. They spend their days learning about the Ancients, discovering the secrets of the galaxy that they’ve made their new home, and dealing with the Wraith, who are that galaxy’s version of the Goa’uld.”

“Essentially,” Daniel spoke up, taking up the story once more as the elevator doors opened and they walked out towards one of the storerooms, “the Wraith are humanoid leeches, draining humans of their life energies to keep themselves alive- kind of like vampires, except that they don’t actually drain _blood_ or anything physical from their victims. The available evidence suggests that they’re some kind of hybrid of humans and a life-draining insect the expedition encountered on one of their first trips through that galaxy’s Stargate network, but how that actually _happened_ is still a mystery at the moment.”

“Ouch…” Fred whispered, as the elevator stopped and the doors opened. “They do _not_ sound pleasant.”

“And that’s even _before_ you factor in the tech these suckers have access to,” Mitchell added, groaning slightly at the memory as the five of them turned towards the unofficially-designated ‘briefing room’ for the current moment. “I mean, their ships are at least _twenty_ times the size of what we’ve got available to us-”

“Hold on a minute; you have _spaceships_?” George interjected, looking over at his friend in shock. “What are we talking here; space shuttles, or what?”

For a moment, there was a contemplative silence as Daniel and Mitchell looked at each other, and then Daniel smiled and nodded in confirmation.

“No, we’re talking about _actual_ spaceships here,” he explained, a slight smile on his face as he recalled some of his trips in the aforementioned ships in the past. “Our ‘fleet’ isn’t much- our original one was called the _Prometheus_ while the later one’s known as the _Daedalus_ , and we’ve got a few other ships under construction at the moment- but they’re still pretty effective at what they do, even if they’re not quite as advanced as some of the stuff out there.”

“Uh… what _are_ the other ships out there like?” Fred asked, a suddenly anxious expression on his face as he looked at the two men; clearly he was worried about the prospect of facing any spaceships on his first mission through the Stargate.

“Oh, you probably won’t have to deal with much yourself; Hestia’s a pretty minor Goa’uld in the grand scheme of things, so she’s unlikely to have anything really large available to her, and most of the biggest ships we’ve encountered belong to the Wraith, who, as I’ve already mentioned, live in a totally different galaxy than we do,” Daniel said reassuringly as he opened the door to the storeroom where they’d be giving his three old friends their ‘lesson’. “And the Replicators aren’t going to be a major concern for you either; they were artificial life-forms dedicated to ‘replicating’ themselves by spreading over the galaxy, but we discovered an Ancient weapon that generated a unique energy wave that caused the Replicators’ atoms to disperse, and they haven’t been heard from since.”

“Ah,” George and Fred said,

“Right now,” Daniel said, as he turned to look grimly at his old friends, his expression all business rather than the more relaxed attitude he’d been broadcasting up until this point, “now that all _that’s_ out of the way, we need to get down to business.”

“OK then,” Mitchell said, taking up the explanation for the moment, “the first thing you all need to understand is that; we’re going into hostile territory, dealing with some enemies that you know and some that you don’t, so you all need to follow orders as _soon_ as they’re given, got that?”

“Check,” the twins said, as Hagrid nodded.

“Good,” Daniel replied simply. “Now then, based on what we saw of Hestia’s planet, we’re dealing with a society at a level comparable to that of ancient Greece, with a great deal of temples around the location where the Stargate is kept, so we’ll be developing a combat strategy to accommodate that as well as our enemies’ potential firepower…”


	17. Round One: Daniel VS Malfoy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To re-confirm, none of the revelations in _Deathly Hallows_ about Snape, Harry, Voldemort and the Hallows apply to this story

An hour or so later, the two groups- both SG-1 and the group that the twins had unofficially designated ‘SG-Magic’- were standing in front of the Stargate, each of them checking over their equipment as they prepared for their current mission.

After some consideration, it had been decided that the wizards, like Daniel, would take a Beretta pistol along with their wands to help them on the current mission; although it had been confirmed that magic was successful in deflecting any Goa’uld weapons that were used against any spells, it was considered to be for the best if they had an alternative weapon to use in the fight. With the obvious exception of Hagrid- there was no way they could have _ever_ found a BDU in his size on such short notice- all the new arrivals were dressed in black stealth/combat BDUs, their wands in specially-designed holsters at their sides.

“So, all in all, the Shield Charm works just as well against Goa’uld weaponry as it does against conventional spells?” Daniel said, looking inquiringly at Sam as they waited for the Stargate to finish dialling; they could just waited outside the room until the wormhole had been established, but Daniel had insisted that his old friends be allowed to see the Stargate in action (After the rules about travelling through the Stargate had been explained and accepted to the twins and Hagrid, and Sam and Teal’c had finished the alien weapons VS magic wands tests, the two groups had spent a bit more time sharing stories about their various lives, and the wizards were thus eager to see the Stargate they’d heard so much about and confirm that it was as impressive as their new friends said it was).

“We tested it as well as we could without actually risking hitting the ‘target’ if it didn’t work,” Sam replied as she looked back at Daniel. “The Charm didn’t actually _reflect_ the blast like it apparently does for… spells… but we _can_ stop the staff blasts with it.”

“Yeah… it’s too bad that the ‘zat gun’ thing can only be stopped for the first couple of shots,” Hermione put in, as she turned to take a better look at the Stargate in front of her, currently only just in the early stages of dialling; only two of the seven chevrons were currently illuminated.

“Wow…” Hermione mused, as the third chevron was activated, causing Tonks to briefly jump at the unexpected _clunk_. “Impressive.”

“Eh, it’s one of the early models,” Mitchell said, shrugging dismissively as he and the rest of SG-1 took up position in front of the wizards; given their experience with what was on the other side, it had been decided that they would take the lead at the moment, while the wizards took charge once they’d had an opportunity to get a good look at their surroundings. “We think this Stargate’s one of the first that were ever built; if nothing else, the one from Antarctica was believed to be the oldest one _ever_.”

“Sorry; there’s a Stargate in _Antarctica_?” Hermione said, looking in confusion at Daniel. “What’s it doing _there_?”

“Well, _originally_ it was the back-up Stargate- you know, it would ‘receive’ anyone dialling in if there was a problem with our ‘main’ Stargate- but then we lost this one and had to use it as our main Stargate for a couple of years,” Daniel explained, as the fifth chevron engaged and lit up. “Then one of our foes- a Goa’uld known as Anubis; a highly dangerous example of the species for reasons I don’t have the time to go into right now- found some Ancient weapon that allowed him to ‘overload’ the Stargate, and we returned to our original gate after Teal’c and his mentor destroyed the weapon and we managed to get the current Stargate off-planet before it could explode and destroy the base.”

“Ah,” Hermione said simply, before another thought occurred to her and she once again looked inquiringly at Daniel. “You say you’ve seen more ‘modern’ examples of Stargates- as in, ones that are more advanced than this one? What’s the difference between them? How-”

Before Hermione could finish what she was saying, the Stargate activated and the familiar ‘exploding water’ burst out of the event horizon, before collapsing back into itself to leave the shimmering ‘pool’ of water that always signified the successful formation of a wormhole.

“Wow…” Hermione whispered, her earlier question halted as she stared at the sight in front of her. “That… that’s just… _wow_.”

“I know,” Daniel said, smiling at his old friend. “I was pretty impressed when I first saw it myself; it doesn’t actually _feel_ like water, but… well, it’s kind of hard to describe, really.”

Then he chuckled slightly, as though at some wistful memory. “All I _can_ tell you is that it’s a _lot_ smoother than using a portkey…”

“Appa-wha?” Mitchell asked in confusion.

“Magical means of transportation to get from place to place,” Fred explained casually. “Harry here could never get the hang of it; he kept on hitting the ground as soon as he’d arrived at his destination.”

“Really?” Sam said, looking curiously over at Fred before she shook her head and turned back to look at the Stargate. “Anyway, let’s get moving; we’ll talk more about _that_ later?”

_Oh boy_ … Daniel swallowed slightly, as he and his friends walked towards the Stargate before them.

When this mission was over, he was definitely _not_ looking forward to telling Sam and the rest of SG-1 about some of his more… embarrassing… moments in the wizarding world; he’d rather that the time he’d stolen a flying car to get to school remained something only his friends from _that_ time knew about.

The team stepped through the event horizon of the Stargate…

* * *

  
A moment later, all nine of them were standing in the temple that SG-1 had first entered only a couple of days ago, the wizards staring around themselves in shock at their first sight of a new world…Then, as Daniel had expected, Fred and/or George- he couldn’t identify which one right now; twenty years away from them had made him lose the ‘knack’ of telling the two apart- broke the solemn mood.

“Bit of a dump, isn’t it?” one of the two said, slightly dejectedly, as he looked around at the temple they were currently standing in. “I mean, we’re in _space_ , but it looks just like some temple back home.”

“ _Fred_ ,” Hermione sighed as she looked over at the twin in question, “if you’d paid _any_ attention to what Harry was telling us earlier, you’d know that most of these planets were populated by slaves that these ‘Gould’ things took from Earth centuries ago; it’s only to be _expected_ that there are at least _some_ similarities between the buildings here and the buildings back home. For once in your life, can you _focus_ when you’re being told something important?”

“Now, Hermione-” Fred protested as he looked at the Minister of Magic.

“We are _both_ -” George continued.

“Shocked and appalled-”

“At that allegation!”

“We _did_ pay attention-”

“When we were-”

“Being told-”

“Something important!”

“It was just that-”

“We never heard-”

“Anything important-”

“When in class!”

Even about to face a fight for his life against people he’d assumed to be dead or imprisoned over the course of the last two decades, Daniel couldn’t stop himself from smiling slightly at the twins’ words; even after almost twenty years, they were _still_ as jocular as ever.

“Uh… were they _always_ like that?” Mitchell asked, looking uncertainly over at Daniel.

The archaeologist just shrugged, a small smile still on his face as he looked at his old friends.

“Well, they were always the school pranksters, and it never really disappointed anybody back then,” he said casually. “Hell, I even recall one time when they started a ‘prank campaign’ against this new headmaster we’d acquired who, quite frankly, was absolutely _useless_ as a teacher; the only reason she even _got_ the job was that the current head of the wizarding government thought that an army was being created at Hogwarts and wanted to ensure we couldn’t actually use any defensive magic in a fight.”

“Why would a government official believe that an army was being created at your school, Daniel Jackson?” Teal’c inquired.

“Long story involving people who just didn’t want to admit that they were facing something big; think Kinsey’s attitude towards us when we first met- convinced that we didn’t _need_ to keep going through the Stargate to tackle the Goa’uld-, change it so that he doesn’t think there _is_ a threat of any kind in the first place, and you’re pretty much there,” Daniel replied, before he turned back to look at the door before him and his eyes narrowed grimly. “Anyway, I’ll tell you more about _that_ later; right now, we have some ‘business’ to attend to.”

“Indeed,” Teal’c said, nodding in agreement as he looked over at the wizards. “Very well then; since your Shield Charms are the most effective means we have to prevent any weapons fire from our enemies from injuring us, you shall take the lead out of the temple, but we will lead the search once any initial resistance has been dealt with.”

“Sounds-” Hermione began, before Daniel reached over to clap a hand over her mouth.

“ _Quiet_!” he hissed desperately at his old friend. “There’s somebody outside this place!”

“ _Damn_!” Sam whispered, as she, Mitchell and Teal’c raised their weapons, prompting the wizards to uncertainly draw their wands. “We should have _known_ they’d station guards at the Stargate; the only reason we got in so easily _last_ time was that nobody was _expecting_ us!”

“Ah, crap…” Mitchell mused, as he glanced at the entrance to the temple; now that the nine new arrivals were listening, it was possible to hear the faint sound of people walking around outside the temple, evidently getting into position for an ambush of whoever came out. “We’re in trouble…”

“Not _quite_ ,” Daniel said, smiling slightly as he indicated Hagrid. “We do have one or two _little_ advantages…”

“ _Ah_ ,” Hermione said, smiling over at her old friend before she looked at Hagrid. “Think you’ll be up to it, Hagrid?”

Hagrid smiled.

“I’ll give it a shot,” he said casually.

“Uh… did I miss something here?” Mitchell said, looking in confusion over at Hermione.

“Hagrid’s part-giant,” Hermione explained. “It gives him an increased natural resistance to any spells that might be used against him; if there’s anybody out there, he’s the best bet for taking any spells without suffering from any long-term effects.”

“Ah- hold on, part- _giant_?” Mitchell said, looking incredulously at Hagrid. “As in, ‘Jack-and-the-Beanstalk’, ‘Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman’ _giants_ are _real_?”

“Well, they’re only about twenty feet normally- portrayals in ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ adaptations are typically exaggerated in terms of size- and I assure you that you’ve got nothing to worry about,” Hermione explained, flashing a brief, apologetic look at Hagrid before her expression became more serious. “Anyway, this isn’t the time for stuff like that; we can deal with the current issue first, _then_ discuss giants.”

“Right-o,” Hagrid said, nodding grimly as he clenched his fists and began to walk towards the door. As he reached the entrance, just before he stepped outside, he paused, cocked his head to one side- clearly listening out for something- and then, in what was probably the most rapid motion Daniel had ever seen Hagrid make, the gamekeeper stepped out of the temple, grabbed two guards by the neck in each hand, and rammed their heads together, sending them collapsing to the ground before he turned to grab another two and hurl them off into the distance.

By the time SG-1 and their new/old friends (New for Sam, Mitchell and Teal’c; old for Daniel) had reached the temple entrance, Hagrid had single-handedly taken care of all six of the wizards- the lack of a tattoo made it clear that they _weren’t_ Jaffa- that had been acting as guards for the Stargate, and was looking inquiringly at Daniel.

“Thought yeh said these ‘Goa’uld’ suckers had people like Teal’c ‘ere- no offence meant, by th’ way; don’t mean ter imply yer not bein’ human’s a big deal- ter act as soldiers?” Hagrid asked, looking inquiringly at Daniel after a brief apologetic glance at Teal’c, to which the Jaffa nodded reassuringly. “How come there’s only wizards here?”

“Probably an example of Voldemort’s arrogance,” Daniel suggested. “He was always so confident in the superiority of magic over other methods of fighting; he probably convinced Hestia that she’d have a better chance of success if she put wizards on guard instead of just Jaffa.”

“I see…” Sam said, nodding thoughtfully as she studied the wizards’s unconscious forms- still dressed in their Death Eater masks and robes- before looked back at Daniel. “You mentioned that he’s arrogant in his belief about his own superiority because of his faith in magic; does that mean he’s prone to underestimating his opponents?”

Daniel shrugged.

“Mostly he tended to think that he was so powerful that he’d win a fight with an opponent no matter who they were, but it was only ever if the opponent were actually facing him head-on for the _first_ time; once he’d fought you once, it was harder to take him out the second time around,” he explained. “I mean, the first time he and I ever actually fought _directly_ , with both of us armed rather than when he first tried to kill me or that incident with the Philosopher’s Stone in my first year, he didn’t really take me that seriously as an opponent, but when we faced off for the last time, the only reason he didn’t kill me straight away was the fact that I was faster and he wanted my death to be _public_ , rather than happening right _there_ where nobody else could see that he’d won.”

Then he smirked slightly as a thought occurred to him. “Of course, the fact that I tackled him using _muggle_ methods of fighting rather than _magical_ ones also contributed to my later success…”

“Ah,” Mitchell said simply, before he glanced over at the wizards. “OK, you guys take point and get ready to throw up one of those Shield Charms if the need arises. The rest of us will stick behind you and direct you to Hestia’s temple; if Voldemort and her aren’t there, we might at least pick up a hint of where they’ve gone.”

“Gotcha,” Hermione said, as she turned to nod at Fred, George, Tonks and Lupin. “You heard Colonel Mitchell; take up position in front of SG-1 and Hagrid and keep an eye out for any Death Eaters or those ‘Jaffa’ guys Harry told us about. If you see anything, activate your Shield Charms first _then_ worry about counter-attacking- Hagrid, you focus on the magic-users; there’s no point in you risking getting wounded by a staff blast when you’re perfectly capable of tackling our magic-based opponents- and try to _not_ worry about settling any personal vendettas you may have with anybody here, OK?”

As the wizards nodded and moved into position in front of the group, Hermione turned to look at Daniel and shrugged nonchalantly at his surprised expression.

“There were a lot of Death Eaters left active after the last battle between you and Voldemort,” she explained, by way of explanation. “I insisted on helping in any ‘raid’ I could- as the last member of our little Trio, I didn’t want to risk getting rusty in a fight- and… well, I picked up a few things; you know how it is.”

“Ah,” Daniel said, before he shrugged and indicated the door before them. “Well, let’s get moving; we’ve got a temple to get to.”

Nodding in agreement, the two groups moved into their new positions- Hagrid at the back of the group and the other wizards spread out around the members of SG-1, wands raised and clenched in their hands as they looked at their surroundings.

“OK then,” Mitchell said, taking charge once again- Hermione may be the magical expert, but he and the rest of SG-1 knew the terrain here better- as he looked at the team, “our priority here is simple; find the temple where Hestia and Voldemort were last time, find some clue as to where they went if they’re _not_ there, and subsequently see if any of the wizards here can answer any of the more major questions that need to be answered about this whole mess…”

“Oh, you mean like why Voldemort’s come _back_ in the first place?” Tonks asked inquiringly.

“Pretty much, yeah,” Mitchell said, nodding in confirmation before he turned back to look at the entrance before them. “OK; let’s go.”

“We’re heading for the temple with a statue of a human being standing in the middle of a blazing fire,” Daniel added as both his old and new friends left the temple; the surrounding area appeared relatively empty, but he wasn’t going to count on that remaining the same for long. “That’s the one where Voldemort and Hestia were when we last visited here; if they’re anywhere, they’ll be there.”

“Check,” Hermione said, before silence settled over the group as the ten of them began to walk towards their destination, wands raised and ready for action.

It didn’t take long for them to spot the temple they were looking for once they were outside, nor did it take long to see that it seemed to be relatively undefended; as with the temple containing the Stargate, there were a couple of guards at the door- apparently a mixture of Jaffa and wizards this time around- but that was about it.

_Of course_ , Daniel mused to himself as he looked at the apparently peaceful landscape, _it seemed quiet enough_ last _time we were here_ …

“Right then,” he said, as he glanced over at Mitchell and Hermione, “if things get ugly here, the two of you follow me to the temple while the rest of us hold the line here; Sam and Teal’c are the most used to dealing with this kind of situation, but I’d rather _not_ go up against Voldemort on my own-”

“Why should you even _have_ to?” Sam protested, looking over at her old friend in shock. “Daniel, you already defeated him _once_ ; surely it’s time for you to-”

“I _have_ to finish it, Sam,” Daniel stated simply as he looked over at the woman he’d fallen in love at practically the moment he met her, trying not to think too much about his feelings for her at this moment when his past was more prominent in his thoughts than it had ever been before…

“I failed once to pull off this particular victory,” he said simply. “I’m not going to fail _again_ , when I’ve got so much _more_ to lose.”

Just as Sam opened her mouth to ask what he meant by that, a staff blast struck the ground mere inches from where she was currently standing, drawing her attention away from the current conversation and onto the matter at hand; specifically, survival.

“ _Protego_!” Lupin and Tonks yelled, raising the Shield Charms around themselves and their allies moments before another staff blast could strike any of them. Glancing around at their surroundings, the members of SG-1 were quick to realise that they were once again trapped in almost the exact same ambush that had resulted in their temporary capture last time they were here; there were slightly less opponents and they seemed to be somewhat better coordinated, as though they’d been practicing since their last meeting, but that aside it was pretty much the same as their last fight with SG-1.

_Except, of course_ , Daniel mused to himself, as he drew his own wand and nodded to Mitchell and Hermione to wait for his signal to move, this _time, we’re prepared for this kind of attack_ …

“ _Move_!” he yelled, pointing ahead of himself as the rest of SG-1 began to attack, Sam and Teal’c raising their P-90s to begin firing at their foes as Lupin, Tonks and the twins launched their own spells. Hagrid, lacking the magical combat experience of the others, simply charged towards one of the heavier concentration of wizards, colliding into them like a massive bowling ball and clearing a temporary gap in the Death Eater and Jaffa line of defences.

“That’s our cue!” Daniel yelled, as he indicated the gap that Hagrid had just created, as he looked over at Hermione and Mitchell. “ _Go_!”

With that, the three of them broke away from the main group and dashed towards the temple, Daniel and Hermione remaining on either side of Mitchell to deflect any spells with Shield Charms. Hermione was slightly slower than the other two- her general lack of combat experience in the past few years was most likely the reason for that- but, even with that slight ‘handicap’, it only took them a few minutes to get through the surrounding attackers and reach the temple of Hestia.

Or, at least, what _had_ been Hestia’s temple; a quick glance inside the building in question was all that Daniel needed to determine that the temple had been abandoned since he’d last been inside it. The torches still had traces of ash in them, and the throne’s cushions still looked as though they’d recently had someone sitting in them, suggesting that Voldemort and Hestia had only recently left the building, but the fact remained that they were gone.

* * *

  
“Damn…” Mitchell groaned, glancing around at their surroundings before he looked back at Daniel and Hermione. “Don’t suppose you’ve got some spell that could tell us where they went?”“Oh, no need to worry about _that_ issue, my foolish little mudblood,” a voice said from off to one side. “You won’t be alive long enough to worry about finding the Dark Lord.”

Hermione’s eyes widened incredulously.

“ _Malfoy_?” she said, as she spun around to look incredulously at the platinum-haired wizard standing behind them. “What the Hell are _you_ doing here?”

“What the- _Granger_?” Malfoy said, looking back at the newest Minister of Magic with wide eyes. “What the Hell are _you_ doing here?”

“What else?” Hermione asked, raising a critical eye “Cleaning up the trash from Voldemort’s old-”

“ _You_ DARE _to say the Dark Lord’s name_?” Malfoy roared, as he pulled out his own wand and pointed it at Hermione. “I shall _kill_ you for this-”

“ _Stupefy_!” Daniel yelled, pulling out his wand and aiming it at Malfoy, the spell only just missing its target as Malfoy dived off to one side.

“ _Impedimentia_!” the former Slytherin yelled, raising his own wand to point it at his opponents. All three of the dark wizard’s opponents managed to dive out of the spell’s way before the spell struck home, but it at least showed Daniel that he was wanted alive at the moment.

Evidently, even after almost twenty years, Voldemort _still_ wanted to be the one to kill him when the time came…

“ _Serpensortia_!” Malfoy yelled once again, staring at the three people before him with a small smirk as a large snake appeared in front of him, hissing at the other three people in the room.

“OK then…” Daniel said, taking a deep breath, hoping that his parseltongue abilities were still up to the task; he’d been consciously suppressing _that_ talent for almost as long as he’d left the magical world. “let’s-”

Before he could say anything else, Mitchell had already raised his gun and fired at the snake, causing its head to explode in a brief hail of bullets.

“I hate snakes,” Mitchell stated grimly as he looked back up at Malfoy, a small grin on his face. “Care to make something of it?”

“ _Diffindo_!” Daniel yelled, raising his own wand to launch a spell at Malfoy before his old nemesis could react to the sudden death of his snake; given Daniel’s current lack of practice in using magic, a sneak attack using his wand seemed like the best way to get in some practice.

“ _Petrificus Totalus_!” Hermione added, launching her own spell at their opponent. Malfoy managed to dodge the Body-Bind curse, but he wasn’t quite as lucky with the Cutting spell, and sustained a brief wound on his arm.

“You’ll _pay_ for that, Potter; _Sectumsempra_!” Malfoy roared, sweeping his wand downwards in a rapid swipe that sent Mitchell staggering backwards, a long, painful gash now present on his stomach.

* * *

  
“ _Mitchell_!” Daniel yelled, spinning around to stare in horror at his new friend.“Worry about somebody who actually _deserves_ your concern, Potter!” Malfoy stated, grinning wickedly at his old nemesis. Before Daniel could reply, Malfoy had turned to face Hermione and waved his wand once again, launching a ray of purple fire at the Minister of Magic, sending her collapsing to the ground after a brief “Oh!” of surprise.

 _What the…_? Daniel thought to himself, even as he dived backwards to avoid being struck with another spell himself; it may have been several years since he’d last seen magic performed, but he recognised that spell from the Battle of the Department of Mysteries all too well. _But that thing’s_ deadlier _if it’s spoken… why didn’t he_ -?

Then the reason for that particular action occurred to him, and he chuckled slightly as he dived over to hide behind a nearby statue.

“Still don’t have the guts to actually _kill_ anybody, do you, Malfoy?” he said, smirking slightly as he pressed himself up against the statue as he pulled out his gun; it would only buy him a few seconds of protection at best, but that was better than nothing right now. “Honestly, it’s been almost twenty years, and you _still_ can’t take a life when you’ve got the perfect opportunity to do so?”

“The… the Dark Lord demanded the pleasure of your deaths _himself_ , Potter!” Malfoy roared; Daniel noted with a slight smirk that the man wasn’t even thinking about coming towards him right now, evidently flustered by Daniel’s continued defiance of him. “If that were not the case, I would derive great satisfaction from-”

“Oh, come _on_ ; am I really expected to believe that he not only cares about the rest of SG-1 _that_ much, but that he actually _knew_ I’d bring some of my old friends along to this little party?” Daniel retorted, as he raised his Beretta in one hand and his wand in another, tensing himself for his moment to attack. “Face facts, Malfoy; it may be almost twenty years since we were last face-to-face, but you’re _still_ just the same as ever. You talk and you talk about how great you are and how pathetic everybody else is, but when you’re actually called upon to do something that _won’t_ leave the target back the way it was before you did whatever it was you did to it, you can’t do it.”

“ _Shut up_!” Malfoy yelled, just as Daniel spun around the corner, his gun raised as he squeezed off three rapid shots in his enemy’s direction. The first shot went somewhat wide, but the second and third struck home, one of them glancing off Malfoy’s thigh while the other buried itself into the Slytherin’s left arm.

“AARRGGHH!” Malfoy screamed, nearly dropping his wand as he moved to clutch his arm with his other hand; he only just managed to adjust his grasp so that the wand remained between his fingers as he looked up in shock at his enemy. “You… you _shot_ me? _Me_? You _dare_ to shoot-”

“Malfoy, I’ve stood up to people who thought they were _gods_ ; do you really think I’d worry much about shooting somebody whose sole reason for thinking they’re so great is that they were born to a certain family?” Daniel retorted, shaking his head pityingly as he raised his gun and wand to point them at Malfoy, a small smile on his face at the fear in his adversary’s eyes. “Now then, shall we do this the easy way- you walk away conscious and we give you medical treatment before asking you questions- or the hard way- you get _dragged_ away and only get the absolutely _necessary_ medical treatment needed to stop you from collapsing on us. Your call?”

“ _Expelliarmus_!” Malfoy roared, pointing his wand at Daniel, rage clear all over his face; evidently, he wasn’t taking the easy way. The spell knocked Daniel’s Beretta out of his hand, but the former Boy-Who-Lived (Privately, Daniel wondered if he should now be called the Man-Who-Wouldn’t-Die after all the times he’d come back to life) kept a tight grip on his wand, rolling off to the side and launching a silent Impediment Jinx at his opponent. Like Daniel, Malfoy managed to avoid it, but the spell nevertheless grazed his left leg, leaving it even more useless than before.

“ARGH!!” Malfoy roared, his left leg practically slipping from underneath him as he fell towards the ground, his bullet-wound bleeding profusely as he glared back at Daniel.

“Gotcha,” Daniel smirked, as he slipped his wand back into its sleeve-holster- he’d picked up a new one during their time in England, concluding that if he was going to be fighting Voldemort again he might as well be prepared- and walked over to crouch down beside Malfoy’s bleeding, battered body, smirking slightly at him.

“Now then,” he said, as though he was talking to a disobedient child, “are you ready to give up the fight _yet_?

Before Daniel could finish the sentence, Malfoy had leapt back onto his feet, somehow stifling the scream that he must have wanted to emit after moving so rapidly, and had pulled out his wand once more.

“ _Crucio_!” he yelled, aiming his wand directly at Daniel’s head as he cast the Unforgivable Curse.

“ _GAARRRGGGHHH_!” Daniel yelled, clutching at his head as he fell to his knees, his brain suddenly feeling like it was about to crawl out of his skull.

_God_ …

He’d thought the hand device had been painful when Ra, Amaunet and Osiris had used it on him, but _this_?

After experiencing that particular curse at practically point-blank range, the hand device was a needle in the front of the brain while _this_ was a _bunch_ of needles all _over_ the brain…

As Daniel collapsed to his knees, gasping in agony as he clutched at his aching head, he was barely aware of anything going on around him. He knew that his enemy was still standing despite his own injuries… he _knew_ that Malfoy was coming towards him, wand raised to use another curse… he knew that his adversary would kill his friends-

Then, as that last thought crossed his mind, something snapped.

He’d already lost the first people he’d ever really had who could be considered his family as a result of this _stupid_ conflict, started decades before he was born by a man who couldn’t accept that he was a pathetic throwback to an age when ideas like his were accepted on a large-scale basis.

Daniel was _not_ going to let anybody else he knew die at the hands of these _maniacs_.

“NEVER AGAIN!!!” he roared, leaping to his feet as he charged directly at his adversary, sending Malfoy crashing to the ground as he punched his old school rival right in the face.

“I’ve lost too many already!” he yelled, hauling Malfoy up by his robes just to punch him in the face once again.

“My parents…” he yelled, finding it hard to focus through the pain in his head as he launched another punch at his old enemy’s face.

“Sirius…” he added, as another punch struck home.

“Ron…” he stated again, smirking slightly through the pain as he heard Malfoy whimper when another blow hit its target.

“Ginny…” he growled, the pain in his heart from that loss- made only worse by the memory of Sha’re’s death, the pain of both deaths having long ago combined in his mind to create a pain far greater than either one on its own- making his subsequent attack even harder than the previous ones.

“You are _not_ going to take _anyone_ else I love from me!” he yelled one last time, as he stepped back slightly to launch a powerful uppercut at his adversary.

For a moment, Malfoy’s feet actually left the ground as he practically _flew_ through the air, propelled by the sheer rage and frustration the archaeologist formerly known as Harry Potter had put into that last punch, and then he hit the ground, grunting briefly before he slumped in a heap, blood trickling from a corner of his mouth, a large bruise on the right side of his face, and a swollen left eye from Daniel’s earlier punches.

As he briefly studied his handiwork, trying to fight the seemingly instinctive urge to just collapse from the pain in his head, Daniel smiled slightly as he took in his handiwork.

It may have been a long time since he’d actually _needed_ to use his hand-to-hand combat abilities, but at least some things about the Death Eaters hadn’t changed; they still almost actively disdained fighting with anything other than wands.

“Did it…” he gasped, as he stared grimly at Malfoy’s unconscious body; after spending so long away from the wizarding world, it was good to see that he hadn’t lost his touch in dealing with dark wizards. “One down… who knows how many to go…”

Than the agony in his brain increased, as though the effort needed to say those few words was too much for him to take, and he collapsed to the ground, his eyes barely even registering that Sam, Teal’c, Lupin and Tonks were just now entering the temple before him.


	18. Round One: Aftermath

As Sam hurried into the temple, she barely even registered the possibility that there could be more Death Eaters and Jaffa somewhere that they hadn’t discovered yet; right then, the only thing that mattered to her was the fact that Daniel and the rest of the group were in there, and, from what she could hear from outside the temple, were currently in the middle of a fight of some kind.

Of course, her own combat experience hadn’t been exactly straightforward; as Daniel had correctly predicted, bringing in some wizards to help them tackle the Death Eaters had given them an important surprise advantage that their opponents hadn’t been expecting, but it still hadn’t been enough to allow them to come through the battle totally unharmed. A few lucky curses had left a few of their attack force with various assorted injuries, but fortunately nothing had been done that would leave any permanent damage; the worst injury had been when what had been later describing as a Cutting Hex had struck the giant- Hagrid, Sam reminded herself- in one arm, but apparently his hybrid nature prevented magic from having as significant an effect on him as it might have done otherwise.

Regardless of the Death Eater’s advantage of numbers, however, the battle had generally concluded in favour of them rather than their enemies, leaving Hestia and Voldemort’s followers collapsed on the ground around them, out of action due to either being stunned, hit with a zat blast, or just having sustained a conventional injury that caused them too much pain to continue fighting (Sam allowed herself a slight smile when she noted that some of the Death Eater’s injuries were relatively minor; clearly they had little to no real experience in fighting hand-to-hand or taking damage to their bodies).

Hagrid, Fred and George had volunteered to clean up the last of the Death Eater/Jaffa Alliance soldiers that had so recently tried to attack them- it was easier to think of them by that name more than anything else, although Sam had made it clear to the wizards that Hestia’s Jaffa were not the same as _all_ Jaffa- but Sam, anxious about Daniel’s safety, had insisted on taking Teal’c, Lupin and Tonks to make sure that their old friends were coping with whatever they’d discovered inside the building.

When she saw Daniel collapse to the floor as she walked into the temple, with the battered body of the young man she vaguely recognised from her last visit as ‘Malfoy’ slumped against a wall while Mitchell and Hermione lay unconscious on the ground- Mitchell in particular was in a bad state, bleeding profusely from a rather nasty-looking chest wound-, Sam’s self-control almost snapped.

They’d barely even started this new ‘campaign’, for lack of a better term, and Daniel already seemed to have ended up with the short end of the proverbial stick once again.

“ _Daniel_!” she yelled, dropping her gun and hurrying over to crouch down beside her friend, unconcerned about the possibility of there being other people inside the temple as she anxiously examined his eyes and pulse; everything seemed to be in working order, but it looked like the archaeologist had simply passed out from taking so much damage.

“Is Daniel Jackson well?” Teal’c said, walking over to crouch beside Sam as Lupin and Tonks hurried over to examine Mitchell and Hermione respectively; Sam knew she should be concerned about her new commanding officer as well, but she knew Daniel better and the cause of his injury, at least, wasn’t hard to work out.

“He’s alive, at least; I can’t determine anything else right now,” Sam replied, looking anxiously back at her old friend before she glanced back over at Lupin and Tonks. “How are the others?”

“Well,” Tonks said, as she looked up at the astrophysicist, “it looks like Mitchell’s been hit with the Sectumsempra curse- it basically turns the wand into an invisible sword and causes a slash on the target according to the way you sweep the wand, for lack of a better description- and Hermione’s taken a non-verbal version of a curse that disrupts her internal organs; they’re both hurt fairly badly, but they’ll be OK if we can get a decent doctor or mediwitch to look at them. I’d say you’d need to take them off active duty for a few days to fully recover- Hermione’ll be on potions for a good few days or so after that curse; it’d be longer, but she’s already gone through it once so her body’s better equipped to heal from the damage- but otherwise they’ll be fine afterwards.”

“Right then,” Sam said, as she crouched down to haul Daniel up over her shoulder, “Teal’c, you and Lupin can help me get them back to the Stargate; Tonks, you and the others see if you can find some way to keep our opponents contained until we can take them back to Earth for questioning.”

“Gotcha,” Tonks said, nodding in confirmation as she glanced over at the collapsed form of Draco Malfoy, a small smirk on her face. “Looks like Harry really did a number on this bastard; the guy looks like he hit a wall with his face an almost _ridiculous_ amount of times…”

“What?” Sam said, walking over, unconcerned about Daniel’s weight over her shoulder, to look at the body of the young man who’d been his rival back in school. When she saw the bloody mess that had clearly once been his face, she could barely stop herself from wincing; he’d never been exactly appealing before- he’d reminded her of the offspring of a greasy ferret and a snake- but his face now looked like it had been involved in a head-on collision with an Al’kesh.

“Oh my God…” she whispered, her eyes wide as she looked back up at Tonks. “ _Daniel_ did this to him?”

She’d seen that Daniel was the last person standing, but she’d assumed he’d just managed to hold himself together after taking that damage earlier in the fight.

To know that he was actually capable of doing something like that to another human being…

Sam wasn’t sure how she should feel about the idea that Daniel was capable of that much hate for anybody he’d ever met.

Apparently oblivious to Sam’s discomfort, Tonks shrugged slightly as she indicated the pale-haired wizard slumped against the wall, breathing but nevertheless having clearly taken a bashing.

“Malfoy was always a prick to him when they were at school due to his obsession with his ‘pure-blood’ status,” the auror explained, sounding relatively nonchalant about the damage; either Daniel had been that vicious back when she’d known him (And Sam couldn’t believe that), or the two men had hated each other so much back then that Tonks had almost been surprised they hadn’t come to blows like this earlier. “Even without his father nearly killing Ginny in her first year and him being sent to kill Dumbledore in his sixth year, the two of them were never going to get on well, even without the general hostility that existed between their two school houses. Add on another two decades of resentment, coupled with what it looks like he did to Hermione and that ‘Mitchell’ guy before he went down- guy must have had some training since he was at school; he could never have taken out _anybody_ this fast back in the old days, even if Harry’s a bit out of practice-, and I’m almost surprised that Harry didn’t do more to the bastard.”

Sam was trying to think of something to say- Teal’c appeared content not to discuss the matter further than it already had been- when a low groan broke the silence before the astrophysicist could decide what she wanted to ask.

“Ugh… my _head_ …” Daniel groaned, blinking dazedly as he raised his head slightly, as though he’d only just registered that people were talking about him, turning to look blearily at Sam; his glasses had fallen off, so his sight definitely wasn’t what it could be, but he could probably at least vaguely see who she was. For a moment he stared at her in confusion, as though he wasn’t sure who she was, but then his eyes softened and a relieved expression appeared on his face.

“You’re OK…” he gasped weakly, his eyes constantly blinking as though he was having difficulty focusing on her. Sam barely had time to register that his eyes appeared to have become surprisingly bloodshot in the last few minutes, as though he’d had a lot to drink the night before and was now dealing with an absolute killer of a hangover, before he wrapped his other arm around her and began to sob softly into her shoulder.

“You’re OK… you’re OK…” he whispered, and Sam was shocked to realise that he actually seemed to be planting brief _kisses_ on her neck. “Don’t die… you can’t die… I’ve lost everyone else… I can’t lose _you_ … I love you… please don’t leave me…”

“What?” Sam said, pulling back slightly to look at the dazed archaeologist in confusion. “Daniel, what are you _talking_ about? Are you OK? It’s _me_ , Sam; not… whoever you think I am.”

As he stared back at her, rapidly blinking as he tried to take in the sight before him, Daniel’s eyes seemed to widen slightly, as though he was only just starting to realise who he was looking at.

“Sam…?” he whispered, reaching up to gently cradle her cheek, blinking rapidly in a manner that left Sam even more worried. “What… what happened… where… am…?”

Then his eyes rolled upwards and he slumped down in her arms once again, letting out a brief, pained gasp as he did so.

“ _Daniel_!” Sam yelled, staring at the suddenly-comatose body of her friend in shock. She couldn’t understand how things kept on changing so rapidly recently; one minute he was talking to her like she was… was _Sha’re_ (Or maybe this ‘Ginny’ person he’d been briefly engaged to back at Hogwarts; from what he’d told them after their first encounter with Voldemort, she certainly seemed to have played just as important a role in his life as Daniel’s deceased wife had), and the next he seemed as though he didn’t even realise what he’d just been saying, never mind who he’d been talking to.

“Oh dear God…” Lupin whispered as he looked at Daniel, his eyes wide in horror as he looked between Daniel and the unconscious platinum-haired man lying on the ground near them, his eyes narrowing as he studied the wand lying some distance away from the other man. “He _couldn’t_ have…”

“What is it?” Teal’c asked, looking critically at the werewolf. “Do you believe you know what is wrong with Daniel Jackson?”

“I might be wrong, but yes, I _do_ think that I know why Harry acted like that; just let me check something…” Lupin said, as he reached over to pick up the wand, pulling out his own as he studied the two for a moment before he tapped his wand against the other. “ _Priori Incantato_!”

As Sam and Tonks watched, a faint, ghostly image appeared of Daniel’s head, his face contorted in agony, floating above the wand before Lupin, shooting a brief glare at Malfoy, said “ _Deletrius_!” and the face vanished.

“I was right; Malfoy used the Cruciatus Curse,” Lupin explained in a voice that sounded like he was having to try hard not to roar in rage at the unconscious Death Eater, in response to Sam’s anxious expression. “It does nothing but cause pain to the target; people have been reduced to the mental equivalent of vegetables by nothing but prolonged use of that curse alone, and, from the image we saw, it looks like Malfoy cast it at practically point-blank range into his brain.”

“Oh my God…” Sam whispered, as she looked at Daniel’s body, shock once again clear on her face as she took in the implications of Lupin’s statement. “You mean that Daniel could be…”

She couldn’t bring herself to say the word ‘insane’; it was as though it would make the prospect more real as soon as the word was actually spoken. Just the thought of Daniel’s brilliant mind, which had helped them to resolve so many problems in his time with them, forever taken from them while his body remained ‘alive’ was almost too horrific for her to even think about it.

“No, Colonel Carter; Harry- Daniel- whatever you want to call him- couldn’t have been exposed to the curse long enough to have anything like that happen to him,” Lupin said, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder as he spoke. “However, based on his condition, I would guess that Mr Malfoy here used the Curse on him at practically point-blank range, most likely aimed at his head. That would account for his disorientation earlier when he saw you; he most likely thought that you were somebody else.”

“But… he’ll be OK in the long term, right?” Sam asked, looking anxiously at the werewolf, trying to contain the momentary stab of disappointment she felt at the suggestion that Daniel genuinely hadn’t known who she was when he was talking to her. There’d be time to think about that later; right now, they had to deal with the more immediate issue of getting rid of Voldemort’s followers and finding out what he was up to.

“Oh yes; Harry’s always had a strong head on his shoulders,” Lupin said, smiling slightly as he looked over at the archaeologist. “He’ll be fine; he won’t be up to doing anything too physically or mentally strenuous for a few days, but let him rest for a little while and he’ll be back to normal soon enough. He’s like his father in that regard; he always gets back up no matter how much damage he takes.”

“You were acquainted with Daniel Jackson’s father?” Teal’c asked, looking inquiringly at Lupin. Sam had to admit that she was interested in the answer herself; her initial concern over Daniel’s health after learning he’d been cursed had slightly lessened now that she knew he was going to be all right, and she felt more willing to satisfy her curiosity about a less vital issue.

“Oh yes; he was one of my three greatest friends back at school,” Lupin replied, a briefly wistful expression crossing his face before he shook his head and looked over at Mitchell’s bleeding body. “Anyway, I can tell you about that later; right now, we have to get these three back to… Earth… to get checked over.”

Sam had to admire Lupin’s resolve to get the job done; for his first time in a combat situation on a totally different planet, he and the other wizards had done a pretty good job.

“Agreed,” Sam said, taking one last glance over at Daniel to make sure there weren’t any other injuries she might have missed earlier- she didn’t want to aggravate any wounds by moving him too rapidly- before she headed back towards the entrance to the temple.

As she heard Tonks and the other wizards utter a few spells around her to ensure the Death Eaters didn’t wake up and get away before they were ready- one of the incantations she used seemed to be something about total petrification, but Sam couldn’t be sure- the astrophysicist could only hope that this mission would actually provide them with something in the way of useful information about the current crisis once the interrogations were over.

Daniel alone seemed to have taken some potentially serious damage in the resulting fight; she _had_ to hope that they’d gained something useful out of this effort.

If Daniel was going to be out of action for the next few days or so, she was going to make sure that she took care of at least _one_ of his old enemies for him before he woke up…


	19. Interrogating Draco Malfoy

As the familiar forms of SG-1 came back through the Stargate, followed closely by the less-familiar-but-nevertheless-friendly forms of Doctor Jackson/Harry Potter/whatever he wanted to be called these days’ friends (With people literally _floating_ around them in varying states of unconsciousness), Landry made a mental note that his next report to Homeworld Security would definitely require him to ask one of their wizarding allies for the name of a magical contact in the government. He might have been able to get away with allowing the wizards through the Stargate- he’d managed to bypass the usual procedures to grant clearance due to the apparent lack of paperwork on the wizarding world’s inhabitants; how could he grant clearance to people who didn’t seem to officially exist?- but keeping this many prisoners in the SGC would definitely require him to make contact with somebody who knew about the magical world already.

Minister Granger may be out of commission- he’d seen her being carried by the red-haired twins as he’d entered the ‘gate room- but he was pretty sure that ‘Tonks’- who seemed to have a slightly different hair style or colour every time he saw her; he’d have to ask her about that- would be able to tell him what he needed to know when the time came; from what he’d gathered she was another member of the British branch of the wizarding government.

“Colonel Carter,” he said, turning his attention towards the highest-ranking conscious member of SG-1; he may trust the wizards, but he’d still prefer to rely on his own team to deliver an accurate assessment of what had just taken place. “Based on the fact that I see no sign of this ‘Voldemort’ person you all described in your last report, I take it that the mission didn’t go as well as we could have hoped?”

“Up to a point, sir,” Sam replied, as she placed the unconscious Doctor Jackson onto a stretcher provided by one of the medical teams before turning back to him. “We managed to take out most of the Death Eaters and Jaffa who came after us- the wizards used Shield Charms to deflect the worst of the blasts while we fought back- but Daniel, Cam and Miss Granger went on ahead to check out the temple and were apparently ambushed by that Death Eater over there.” She briefly indicated the unconscious form of a man around Doctor Jackson’s age, with almost white hair and bruises all over. “From what we saw, it looks like he managed to take them by surprise in the temple where Voldemort and Hestia were earlier; he’s apparently not a very competent duellist, so Tonks doubts that he could have taken them on in a fair fight.”

“I see…” Landry said, nodding thoughtfully at the head of his science department as he glanced over at the body before turning to look at Tonks, who was now standing beside Sam and looking at him. “You’re saying you and your associates all know this man who attacked Doctor Jackson?”

Tonks nodded. “Pretty well, really; his father was in Voldemort’s inner circle during his initial reign of terror, and he was pretty much Harry’s ‘counterpart’- you know, everything Harry was for Gryffindor House while they were in school, he was or tried to be the same for Slytherin- for the duration of their school career,” she explained. “Guy lacked the killing instinct to really _do_ anything at the time- he once had a perfect opportunity to kill Voldemort’s main opponent back then and didn’t take it-, but he seems to have acquired a few more guts judging by the damage he did to them in the temple; it’s possible he’s more competent and ruthless than we remember him being, although it seems that Harry’s still the better fighter of the two.”

“Right then,” Landry said, nodding briefly at Tonks before he turned to look at Lupin. “Did you or your associates recognise anybody else among the Death Eaters’ ranks at the time of the attack as being a potentially prominent member of the organisation? If we’re going to start asking questions, the higher-ranking a member we can interrogate the better.”

Lupin shook his head. “No, Malfoy seems to be the highest-ranking member of the old guard in this team; none of the Death Eaters here had even left school at the time of Voldemort’s last war, and at least half of them don’t even have any family ties to the original group,” he explained, as he indicated Mafloy once again. “From everything we’ve seen, it looks like Malfoy’s the most likely candidate to question if we want to learn anything more about what we’re dealing with.”

“Interrogate Malfoy?” Fred- or George; Landry was still getting his head around just how alike those two looked, never mind how to figure out a way to tell them apart- said, grinning broadly as he looked at the general; he and his twin had come through the Stargate while Landry was talking to Carter, Lupin and Tonks, but the other one and Hagrid had apparently gone with Teal’c to take the rest of the temporarily expanded SG-1 to the medical bay. “I’d be willing to give that a shot, sir!”

“ _No_ ,” Lupin said, glaring over at ‘Fred’ with narrow eyes. “You are _not_ going to interrogate anybody, Fred; you’re not a professional investigator, you’re totally unqualified-”

“And I believe such a decision is _my_ choice to make?” Landry interrupted, looking critically at Lupin as he spoke, causing the three wizards to turn back to look at him. “I acknowledge your superior knowledge of our latest enemy in the field, gentlemen, but when it comes to matters within the base itself, the final decision on any action we take in this current campaing is mine. As long as you’re working with us, you’ll adhere to the rules and chain of command of the Stargate program, understood?”

“Uh… sure thing,” Fred said, nodding slightly uncertainly at Landry before he glanced over at Lupin, as though waiting for a cue or hint of what he should do next. Lupin, however, seemed perfectly relaxed about the whole thing; he simply nodded in acknowledgement of Landry’s point, not even offering a token resistance to the idea of taking orders from him.

“A reasonable request, General Landry; we shall remember that,” the werewolf said, shooting a brief glare at Malfoy before he looked back at Landry. “However, if you are going to interrogate Mr Malfoy, I have a recommendation for something that might help your staff get the answers we need from him if he initially proves to be… uncooperative to your interrogation.”

For a moment, Landry paused, and then nodded in acceptance.

“All right,” he said, nodding at the werewolf. “Just so long as nothing you have to recommend will cause any long-term damage to our prisoners’ health, I’ll accept your suggestions. Clear?”

“Of course,” Lupin nodded in response. “I’ll explain everything, I assure you.”

* * *

  
An hour or so later, Sam stood outside the interrogation room where they’d placed Malfoy, quickly going over everything she needed to ask him if they were going to further their knowledge of this situation. The guards were stationed outside the room in the event that Malfoy tried anything, his wand had been removed, their wizarding allies had provided potions to treat the worst of the injuries so that he could answer any questions they had without trying to get out on the grounds that he was in too much pain, and, if he refused to answer any of her questions…Well, thanks to the supplies Lupin had offered them, they had an insurance policy if things didn’t go the way they’d planned.

Sam didn’t like it, but there it was; if he wouldn’t give them anything useful willingly, thanks to their wizard allies, they had other means they could resort to.

Nodding briefly at the guards on either side of her, she stepped forward and opened the door in front of her, revealing Malfoy on the other side, handcuffed to a chair as he stared at the door, his eyes narrowed in rage.

“Draco Malfoy of the Death Eaters, correct?” Sam asked, looking inquiringly at him as she shut the door. “I’m Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter, of the United States Air Force-”

“And Potter’s bit on the side, am I right?” the wizard interrupted, glaring spitefully up at her, his expression making it clear that he felt as though he was talking to a trained ape rather than a human being.

Sam blinked.

“Excuse me?” she said, wondering if she’d misheard or misinterpreted his statement. He couldn’t honestly have thought that Daniel and her were… _involved_ … in that sense; he must have just defaulted to a naturally hostile state due to his current condition.

“You heard me; his reaction about losing people he _loves_ suggests he must have somebody else he feels that way about,” Malfoy stated, his voice practically dripping contempt as he looked at her. “I don’t know how he can stand it; first that Chinese idiot who wouldn’t stop crying over a pathetic blood traitor, than the blood-traitor redhead, and now a lowly muggle? What kind of pathetic wizard-”

“From what I’ve heard, that ‘pathetic wizard’ has already defeated your so-called ‘Dark Lord’ twice where everybody else failed,” Sam retorted, glaring at the man before she as she tried to restrain herself from punching him in the face; she may not like him, but she still had to stick to the rules during this interrogation, no matter how much she may hate this moron for what he was implying about her friend.

“Correction; he defeated the Dark Lord when the Dark Lord had yet to fully ascend to the status that was his _right_ ,” Malfoy retorted, looking up at her with an almost fanatical gleam in his eyes, of the kind she hadn’t seen since they’d first started to travel through the Stargates and seen the devotion some people had to their ‘gods’. “Now that he has returned from the netherworld that Potter foolishly tried to banish him to, the Dark Lord has at last ascended to the godhood and authority that he long deserved, and there is _nothing_ that-”

“Wait a minute; godhood?” Sam interrupted, looking at Malfoy inquiringly. She had a pretty good idea where this avenue of inquiry would lead, of course- if Voldemort had somehow become a Goa’uld, it seemed likely that he would have absorbed the Goa’uld genetic arrogance, as well as at least some of their knowledge- but she wanted to have a bit more to go on with before she knew either way. “What do you mean by that?”

“What else _could_ I mean by that, mudblood?” Malfoy said, a broad, fanatical grin on his face as he looked up at her. “No _man_ can return from death, but the Dark Lord has achieved it- _twice_ , I might add- no matter what fate befell him after his last appearance in battle! He has knowledge that no other wizard has ever possessed, and powers beyond anything even that fool Dumbledore dreamed of! He is-”

“An alien parasite,” Sam interjected once again, her eyes narrowed as she glared at the man before her. “He’s not a god, Mr Malfoy; he’s just an alien slug who hides in people’s bodies because he doesn’t have one of his own. Maybe he’s mentally the same person he was, but I can assure you of one thing; Voldemort has _not_ returned from the dead because he suddenly became a god.”

Malfoy snorted at her as though he was trying to stop himself from laughing.

“Do you truly expect me to believe _that_ demented story, you dirty little mudblood?” he asked, staring at her as though she was nothing more than something unpleasant he’d found on his shoe. “ _Aliens_ do not exist; they are simply the pathetic delusions of mudbloods who cannot accept that there is something they cannot understand on this pathetic planet, and so turn to the _stars_ of all things for answers-”

“Then how do you explain your little ‘trip’ to where we captured you?” Sam retorted, leaning forward, hoping that she’d manage to intimidate this moron through sheer force of will if nothing else. “You weren’t anywhere on Earth after you stepped through the Stargate-”

“There are tales of mystical realms where the gods-” Malfoy began.

Sam punched him once in the face, stood up, and walked out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her.

“Get Lupin down here with that… potion… he said we could use if interrogation didn’t work,” she said, trying to maintain an authorative attitude; she was here to get a job done, not to pummel that… _idiot_ … into the ground for being unable to accept anything that didn’t seem to fit with what he’d been told. “He’s proving uncooperative at the moment; hopefully, if he _has_ to tell the truth, we’ll be able to get something useful out of him instead.”

Nodding in confirmation, one of the guards walked away from the door, leaving Sam standing in front of the makeshift ‘cell’ in his place, her gaze fixed grimly on the door in front of her. According to their wizarding allies, they’d installed magical ‘wards’ around the base that would prevent their captives from escaping whenever they wanted- Sam had already made a mental note to try and find out whether those wards could block transporter technology as well as… magical… means of moving about when this crisis was over-, so all she had to worry about was him trying to break out of the base the normal way.

Of course, she strongly doubted that he’d actually manage that- Malfoy didn’t really strike her as the type who regularly engaged in any kind of physical activity, no matter how much he may brag about his own superiority to her in every way-, but even amateurs could sometimes land a lucky blow in an escape attempt.

A few moments later, the soldier came back, carrying a phial of clear liquid in one hand and a zat gun and a smaller green bottle in the other one. The clear liquid was undoubtably the truth potion Lupin had offered them, but Sam wasn’t entirely sure what the contents of the green bottle were for.

“Mr Lupin told me that you’d probably need these if you’re going to make him take the potion,” the man explained as he passed the objects to Sam. “The contents of the green bottle should apparently revive the prisoner after he’s been knocked out by the zat gun, and you can give him the truth serum while he’s unconscious; just a few drops should do the trick.”

“Thanks,” Sam said, nodding briefly as she took the offered objects, slipping the phials into her pockets as she stared grimly at the zat gun in her hand.

She knew that her job was important, but there were _definitely_ times when she wished that somebody else could make the trickier moral decisions for her. Sometimes, the hardest part of being a hero wasn’t witnessing other people die physically; it was having to run the risk of letting yourself die morally, as you committed all kinds of morally questionable actions in the name of victory. No matter how good your motives were, the fact remained that you were often committing the very actions you condemned the other side for just to further your own agenda; the fact that you were doing this to _save_ people rather than _hurt_ them didn’t quite make up for it, as far as Sam was concerned.

But, with Daniel currently in the medical bay having sustained some potentially serious head trauma, she found it surprising easy to push her morals to the side for the moment.

As soon as she re-entered the room, Malfoy still sitting casually behind the chair where he’d been when she’d left him, Sam didn’t hesitate; she raised the zat gun, activated it, and fired it at him, her face grim as he slumped down in the chair, unconscious. Walking up to stand beside him, Sam tipped a few small drops of the clear liquid into his mouth, waited a few moments to allow the potion to take effect, and subsequently tipped the other potion down the man’s throat.

As he blinked his eyes open, his expression now somewhat vague, as though he was only dimly aware of where he was, Sam sat down opposite him, going over her questions once more. She had to admit to herself that, given his apparent fanatical devotion to Voldemort, it was unlikely that he really knew the truth about Voldemort’s resurrection- he genuinely seemed to have believed all that talk about Voldemort being a god-, but it couldn’t hurt to try.

“Right then, Mr Malfoy,” she said, staring authoritively at him as she made herself comfortable in her chair. “Can you tell me how and when Voldemort made contact with you after his last… death?”

“He came to my mansion one night, around two years ago, when I was alone and contemplating my next move,” Malfoy replied, his voice almost blank; Sam had encountered robots who displayed more emotion than he was displaying at the moment. “He told me that he had discovered ancient lost creations by the wisest of wizards, and intended to use them to make us greater and more feared than ever before. All he required of me was my service, along with those of us who remained faithful to him after his last defeat, and in exchange he would grant us power and authority over more mudbloods and inferiors than we could ever have imagined even existed in our last campaign.”

“I see,” Sam said, trying to contain her disgust at his attitude; as much as she hated what this guy was talking about right now, she didn’t want to find out what would happen if she started yelling at him about how she really felt about his attitude given his current state. “What ‘lost creations’ were these?”

“Magical artefacts that could do things none of us had ever dreamed possible,” Malfoy continued, his mouth twitching slightly into a smile as he spoke. “Some of them lacked power, but he assures us that he will restore them to use when the time is right. They include a glove that can restore whoever the wearer wishes to full health, while its counterpart can cause extreme pain… a cabinet that can bring anyone inside back from death… massive wands capable of delivering death at a far greater distance…”

“I see,” Sam said, raising one hand to stop him; the descriptions all matched some of the more traditional examples of Goa’uld technology, so she doubted that Vodlemort had access to anything they hadn’t seen already. “Can you tell us where Voldemort went after he departed the… temple?”

“He and the other god- a lesser one to him, of course, but she was a goddess nevertheless- travelled to another location through the great ring, taking some of his army with him and leaving us to secure the new centre of our great rule,” Malfoy continued, once again looking supremely satisfied with himself as he spoke. “Once he has achieved his destiny, we shall join him at his side and shall be honoured by him beyond the dreams of any wizards before or since.”

“Can you show us the symbols he used to make the ‘great ring’ work?” Sam asked, pushing a piece of paper and a pencil towards him.

“Of course,” Malfoy replied, nonchalantly drawing the symbols on the piece of paper in front of him in a matter of seconds, with no hesitation or uncertainty. Sam was prepared to bet that this potion he’d been given was permitting him to directly access his subconscious memories of the symbols that Voldemort had dialle dinto the DHD, as it was the only explanation for how he was able to do such detailed sketches of the symbols when he could only have seen them briefly.

“Thank you,” Sam said once he’d finished, taking the picture back from him and briefly glancing over it. The seventh symbol could obviously be discarded as being the point of origin, but otherwise it looked like they were well on their way to making progress in tracking their new villain; if they had the address of the planet he went to after departing his first destination, they at least had a good chance of catching some more of his followers.

Of course, the fact that Malfoy still clearly believed that Voldemort was _actually_ a god made it a bit harder for them to determine how he’d come back from his last battle with Daniel- or Harry, as he’d been known back then-, but Sam was confident that they’d find that out eventually.

All she could do right now was hope that, when they discovered the reason for his apparent resurrection, it wasn’t too late to do them some good in the fight…


	20. The Next Planet

An hour later, once the technicians had run the Stargate address provided by Malfoy through the computers, the remaining active SG-1 and the unofficial ‘SG-M’ were once again gathered together in the briefing room, Sam standing at the head of the table beside the projection screen as she looked at the group before them. Trying not to think too much about the continued absence of Daniel and Mitchell from the briefing- even with magical assistance, it had turned out that the two of them and Minister Granger would be out of action for at least a few days-, she turned her attention back to the matter of relaying the information she’d acquired from Malfoy about their next destination.

“Given the symbols that Malfoy tells us Voldemort dialled into the DHD when he left through the Stargate,” Sam explained as she looked at the people a part of her was already beginning to think of as friends ever after knowing them for such a relatively short time, “even when taking into account the possibility that Malfoy didn’t remember them in the correct order, there seems to be only one gate address that fits the criteria we’re looking for; the abandoned laboratory of Anubis that we visited shortly after we helped the Asgard save Orilla from the Replicators.”

“Sorry; you visited the lab of who after you helped the who save what from the what?” Fred asked, raising one hand and looking in confusion at Sam.

“Anubis was a Goa’uld System Lord with access to Ancient technology, the Asgard are some of our most powerful offworld allies, Orilla was their new homeworld, and the Replicators were a species of artificial life forms that tried to conquer the universe to continue ‘replicating’ themselves; we destroyed them last year,” Sam said briefly in response to Fred’s question before she continued. “Anyway, given Voldemort’s apparently limited knowledge of the technology that was once used by the other System Lords- not to mention the fact that he probably doesn’t have access to any of it himself even if he’s a real Goa’uld who just happened to discover a means of posing as the original Voldemort-, it seems like a safe bet that he intends to try and find something in that lab that he can use to improve his current position among the Goa’uld hierarchy.”

“Improve his current position using _technology_?” Lupin said, looking uncertainly at Sam. “Colonel Carter, while I don’t deny your experience in facing these ‘Goa’uld’, if this really _is_ Voldemort we’re dealing with, I find your suggestion unlikely; he’s never shown even the slightest interest in using technology before where magic’s always been available-”

“He’s never had access to Goa’uld technology before,” Sam pointed out, as she stared back at the werewolf. “I admit that him going after technology wouldn’t be something he’d have done before- based on what Daniel told us about him he totally disdained anything to do with non-magical means of doing anything-, but you have to take into account that Goa’uld technology is something the general population of Earth doesn’t have access to. If he used it, he wouldn’t be showing a reliance on the non-magical community that he would have perceived to be weak; he’d have gained control of something that no other wizard, to his knowledge, has ever possessed before, putting him at an advantage over anything your world could throw at him.”

For a moment, the wizards sat in silence contemplating what Sam had just said, before Tonks finally nodded.

“It _does_ seem to fit his personality, you have to admit,” she said, as she looked at her husband and colleagues. “His main goal was always to gain power, and you can’t deny that a spaceship is _definitely_ something that not many other people would have available right now.”

“Well, Anubis didn’t really leave anything significantly useful there when we investigated it, but at the time I admit that we were mainly looking for any Ancient-related technology he might have left behind rather than just general weaponry,” Sam explained to the wizards. “Teal’c, Daniel and I did find a basic armoury in that area, but it only contained conventional Goa’uld weapons, and, given how difficult the lab was to access in the first place, we decided it would be best just to leave it alone.”

“And you didn’t worry that somebody might go back there?” George put in, looking in surprise at Sam.

“As Colonel Carter has just informed you, the laboratory lacked an obvious entrance that somebody could use; we felt it unlikely that anybody would ever manage to return to claim its contents,” Teal’c explained. “In any case, there was nothing there that could have been of significant use to any Goa’uld currently active at the time; to destroy the base would have been too much effort for no particular benefit.”

“Unless, of course,” Sam added as she looked around the table, “as in this case, we’re dealing with a Goa’uld who has none of their conventional weaponry available to him to begin with and wants to make his mark on the galaxy.”

“Not a very likely situation, huh?” Fred asked, raising his hand casually.

“Not really,” Sam replied, shaking her head. “Most Goa’uld have been active in the galaxy for centuries; the only real exceptions we’ve encountered so far have been the Goa’ulds who posed as Osiris and Isis during their reign on Earth, who were frozen in stasis on Earth until somebody let them out of their prisons.”

“Ah,” Lupin said, nodding in understanding. “And you think that the Goa’uld we’re dealing with here might be like them? He was trapped on Earth before they left here and was only recently released?”

Sam nodded briefly. “It’s possible, of course, but I wouldn’t like to say anything either way until we have the chance to find out from the immediate source,” she said, as she looked over at General Landry. “With your permission, General, I think we should check out this planet as soon as possible; if we can find Voldemort before he’s had a chance to relocate; the more we keep him on his toes, the less chance there is that he’ll have a chance to organise a plan to come back to Earth.”

“Right then,” Landry said, sitting forward to look around at his team. “The same procedure as last time should be fine; get onto that planet, capture who you can from the other side, find out what you can about how this ‘Voldemort’ sucker came back to life, or, failing that, capture whatever high-ranking followers of his you can find who might know his secret.”

“Talking of which, how’re Harry and Hermione doing?” George asked, looking curiously at Landry. “Oh, and Mitchell as well, of course,” he added, looking around briefly to apologise for his oversight (Not that Sam and Teal’c blamed him, of course; it was only natural that he’d be more concerned about the people he’d known the longest over somebody he’d only met a couple of days ago).

Landry shook his head apologetically. “Unfortunately, none of them are currently in any position to do anything; even with that… outside help you brought in,” he nodded briefly at Lupin at that before continuing, “Doctor Lam tells me it’s going to be a good few hours at least before Colonel Mitchell alone is back on his feet, to say nothing of Ms. Granger or Doctor Jackson; that… curse… Doctor Jackson took to the head apparently did quite a bit of damage.”

“Yeah, head-on Cruciatus ain’ ever a pleasant thing to deal with,” Hagrid said, shaking his head as though at some saddened memory before he brightened and looked back at Sam and Teal’c. “Don’ worry ‘bout Harry, though; Poppy’s seen him through injuries since he was at school, and he’s always come through.”

“Poppy?” Sam asked, looking curiously at the half-giant gamekeeper. Despite her strong desire not to be reminded any more than she had to be that Daniel had been in the hospital wing so many times it wouldn’t be unreasonable to suggest that he have all his mail forwarded there, Sam couldn’t resist the temptation to ask for further information about his life back in the wizarding world before he’d taken the steps that would lead to the two of them meeting on Abydos all those years ago.

“Oh, Madam Pomfrey’s the Hogwarts staff nurse; Harry was pretty much her most consistent patient during his time in the school,” Fred explained, smiling slightly at the memory. “He was in a coma after exams in first year, had to regrow all the bones in his arm in his second, fell off his broomstick and nearly got his soul sucked out in third year, had to deal with dragons and dark wizards after his blood in fourth year, got tortured by a right git of a teacher and narrowly survived a showdown with Voldemort’s followers in fifth year, and after sixth year…”

He chuckled slightly, as though at some slightly pleasant memory. “Well, whenever Harry, Ron or Hermione got injured, Madam Pomfrey was always the first medwitch they went to; with Hogwarts shut for the war and all, I think they were probably grateful for it.”

Sam, Teal’c and General Landry could only blink in surprise after the twin’s latest revelation.

“Daniel Jackson endured all that and survived?” Teal’c said, looking sceptically at Fred. “And you are confident that this was all when he was but a child?”

“Uh… yeah?” Fred said, looking in confusion at the Jaffa. “There a problem we should know about?”

After a moment’s pause, during which the two SG-1 members and General Landry exchanged uncertain glances with each other, Sam shook her head.

“No, it’s nothing; just… surprised, I guess,” she said, shrugging dismissively.

“Right then,” Landry said, leaning forward to look at the team with a slight smile. “You have a go.”

Just as the group had stood up, however, Landry raised a hand and looked critically over at Fred and George.

“You two stay here,” he said, prompting surprised looks from the rest of the team.

“Huh?” Tonks said, looking in surprise at the general. “Why?”

“Well, I don’t know how things work in the wizarding world, but I _do_ have to submit reports to my superiors about our activities here,” Landry explained, as he looked over at the auror before turning to look at the twins. “Anyway, since I doubt anyone from the IOA will believe me about this latest turn of events, I feel that the only chance I have of not being carted off to the mental asylum after I tell everyone about this latest turn of events is to provide proof that magic actually _is_ real, and, in all fairness, you two currently strike me as the most expendable members of our expanded team if we get into a fight.”

“ _Expendable_?” Fred said, clutching at his chest as he looked at Landry with a wounded expression. “Sir, I am _shocked_ at your implication!”

“We are _very_ skilled long-term members of Dumbledore’s Army-” George began.

“Whose specialities, according to what Doctor Jackson- to say nothing of your colleagues- have told me, include coming up with various magical-themed practical joke devices,” Landry pointed out as he looked at the twins. “I’m not denying your skills, but I think we can both agree that you’d be better suited to convincing my superiors at the IOA that I haven’t gone crazy by talking about magic; any civilisation advanced enough to have created a means of duplicate.”

“Uh… look, about the whole ‘telling these IOA guys everything about this situation’, are you _sure_ you _have_ to talk to themabout it?” Tonks asked, looking uncertainly at him. “I mean, we _do_ have this whole policy about keeping our world _secret_ I’d really like to keep; Harry may trust you all, but can we really be sure that these guys will keep it…”

Landry shook his head.

“Trust me, I considered asking you for information about trying to contact somebody in the… wizarding branch of the government about this, but I’d still need to let the IOA know about this whole thing in the end; something this big can’t just be kept secret, given how often we’re needing to dial the Stargate to do the job,” he said, shaking his head apologetically as he looked at the metamorphagus. “If it’s any consolation, they’ve kept the Stargate program and everything linked to it secret so far; I think they can be trusted to keep the wizarding world quiet from anybody who shouldn’t know about it.”

“Plus, of course,” Sam added, looking with a slightly relieved expression at the others, “it might comfort them to know that we’re actually making _some_ progress in coming up with new means of combating the Priors.”

“Huh?” Hagrid said, looking in surprise at her. “What do yeh mean by that?”

“Well, one of the SGC’s main goals is to discover new technology that might enable us to combat our current enemies,” Sam explained to the half-giant. “We succeeded in that goal when it came to the Goa’uld, but the Ori and the Priors are so far proving more difficult; our only successful means of fighting them is this device that temporarily blocks off the parts of their brain that allow them to use their powers, and even that’s only a temporary measure at best. With you on the team, we actually have a means of _surpassing_ the Priors; after all, their most obviously useful powers to convince people of their powers are limited to telekinesis, healing, and apparent control over fire, all of which, from what we’ve seen and heard so far, you’re more than capable of equalling, if not actually _surpassing_.”

“Eh, we try,” Fred said, shrugging with a slight grin on his face before the implications of Sam’s statement set in. “Wait… you don’t mean you’re going to… press-gang us or something, right?”

“What?” Sam said, looking in horror at him. “You thought we- _no_!”

“Colonel Carter simply meant that, if the IOA ask for a reason why we’re allowing you and any associates you may wish to bring along access to the Stargate, we have an explanation for our actions that the IOA will accept,” Landry clarified, looking reassuringly around at the wizards. “I assure you, you will be under no obligation to continue going through the Stargate once the current situation has been dealt with unless you wish to; once this is over, you can freely return to England.”

“But… won’t these ‘IOA’ be… well, ‘annoyed’ is probably too mild a term… at our departure after you said we could help you?” Lupin pointed out.

Landry shrugged. “So long as I simply give them enough information to make them think you’ll stick around without actually explicitly saying that you will, we shouldn’t have too big a problem,” he assured the werewolf. “That’s the thing about these people; sometimes, so long as you give them what they _want_ to hear, they don’t notice what they _didn’t_ hear.”

“Nice,” Tonks said, smiling back at him in approval. “Leave whoever comes down thinking that he’s got what he wants out of us, while not leaving us obligated to actually _give_ him anything.”

“Precisely,” Landry said, nodding before he indicated the Stargate on the floor below them. “Anyway, you’d better all get moving; the longer we wait here, the greater the chance that Voldemort and his followers will move on to another planet, and this time they _won’t_ leave us somebody we can question about the address.”

* * *

  
A few minutes later, after the slightly disorientating experience of going through the Stargate once again, Sam, Teal’c, Tonks, Lupin and Hagrid found themselves in a grassy field with some ruins spread out around the Stargate, weapons and wands drawn as they studied their surroundings.“OK, everybody stay on the alert and keep an eye out for any sign of hostiles,” Sam said, looking back at the others as she spoke. “The MALP didn’t detect any sign of Goa’uld technology being in use, but there’s no guarantee that the Death Eaters haven’t just acquired the weapons and gone on. If that’s the case, we need to try to find some clue regarding where they’ve gone, and then we’ll take whatever next step is appropriate. Any questions?”

“Nope,” Tonks said brightly, followed by equally confirming nods from the other members of the combined SG-1/‘SG-M’ team. “Let’s do-”

Before she could finish the sentence, a staff blast struck the ground off to the side of the team, sending them all diving back to hide behind the platform that the Stargate was standing on.

“What; they got the weapons _already_?” Tonks groaned, as she glanced over at Sam and Teal’c. “Don’t these guys have _anything_ that takes a while to learn how to use?”

“Since the Goa’uld are predominately scavengers, they rarely seek to make their technology particularly complex to operate,” Teal’c explained as he glanced over at the metamorphagus. “Also, with Hestia’s remaining Jaffa to aid them, it is likely that the Death Eaters were able to significantly cut down on the time that it would have taken for them to properly learn how to use their new weapons.”

“ _Great_ …” Sam groaned, as she checked her gun before risking a glance over the edge of the platform, briefly noting the advancing Death Eater and Jaffa forces coming towards them before ducking back down. “OK, we’ve got about a dozen Jaffa and six or so Death Eaters; there’s no sign of the Jaffa First Prime, but the lead Death Eater appears to be a pale man with greasy black hair-”

“Hold on; did you say ‘greasy black hair’?” Lupin said, his expression suddenly grim as he looked at Sam. “Excuse me for a moment…”

Peeking over the edge of the platform, Lupin ducked down after a few seconds- a staff blast narrowly missing his head as he ducked back down-, a grim expression on his face as he looked over at Tonks and Hagrid.

“It’s Snape,” he said, his hand clenching around his wand as he looked at his wife and his friend. “ _He’s_ leading them.”

“Uh… Snape?” Sam asked, looking inquiringly over at Lupin. “Would this be the ‘Snape’ Daniel told us used to teach… Potions… back at the school?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Lupin said, spitting the word out like it was a curse. “He was our ‘insider’ to the Death Eaters’ plans… but he was using us all along, simply because he couldn’t get over a joke a friend of mine had played on him that nearly got out of hand back when we were all _fifteen_. He kept on going on and on about how Harry was an arrogant fool who lived solely for the attention he received as the Boy Who Lived, with no skills and having survived that far only because of luck…”

He rolled his eyes in frustration as he leaned back against the platform. “Honestly… after all the times Harry tried to stay _out_ of the spotlight, you would have thought that Snape would have received the message…”

“You say that this man showed disrespect to Daniel Jackson?” Teal’c inquired, looking over at the werewolf as he checked his ammunition.

“Well…” Lupin paused, a bit surprised by the unexpected question, before he finally nodded. “Yes, that _is_ one way of describing it, I suppose…”

“Very well, then,” Teal’c said, as he looked over at the wizards. “You all may do as you wish with our other opponents; I shall deal with this ‘Severus Snape’ myself.”

Lupin blinked in confusion, but Teal’c turned to look at the werewolf before he could say anything.

“When I first came to this world, I had done a great wrong to Daniel Jackson by being responsible for selecting his wife as a host to the queen of my former master Apophis,” he explained, his expression grim as he recalled those dark times. “Despite this fact, Daniel Jackson did not hesitate to aid me in understanding the world that I now lived in, and even sought to defend me when the people of a planet we visited sought to put me on trial for my past crimes against them while in the service of Apophis.”

His eyes narrowed grimly as he studied his weapons. “If this man has dared to insult Daniel Jackson and imply that he is anything less than what he is, I intend to see that he pays greatly for his actions.”

“Ah,” Lupin said simply.

Having heard Teal’c’s reasons for wanting to kill Snape, Lupin had to admit that his new friend- and he was almost amazed at how quickly he’d started to think of Teal’c as a friend- certainly had his reasons for wanting Snape dead. Admittedly he didn’t _quite_ understand where Teal’c was coming from, but, after all, he sometimes became confused by some muggle customs in daily life; why should he expect to understand how an alien race thought?

Besides… looking at the weapon in Teal’c’s hand, Lupin had to admit that he would find it somehow more… satisfying… if Snape died as the result of a muggle weapon rather than as a result of a spell, after all the former potions-master’s beliefs that he was superior simply because he was a wizard.

Lupin may have hated Snape for longer than Teal’c, but, right now, he could think of no better revenge than to have the man who’d betrayed the contents of the prophecy to Voldemort, thus sealing Lily and James’ fates that terrible Halloween night, be killed by the weapons of the people he believed were nothing to him.

“Very well,” he said at last, nodding at his Jaffa ally. “You take Snape; we’ll handle the rest of the Death Eaters.”

“Right then,” Sam said, checking her ammunition one last time before she looked back at her expanded team. “Everyone, _attack_!”


	21. Round Two: Teal'c VS Snape

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry to those of you who were looking forward to the meeting with the twins and the IOA this chapter; given how long it might take for the IOA to send Woolsey down to the SGC, that might not be happening for a little while- and, indeed, the SG-1/SG-M team might get back to Earth before they get there- but the seeds have been sown for the meeting, and it _will_ happen soon enough, I assure you

As soon as Sam had given the order, SG-1 and ‘SG-M’ had leapt up from behind the platform, firing off a rapid combination of zat blasts and stunning spells; Teal’c had vowed to kill Snape, but until he got the opportunity to get a clear shot off, anyone they encountered was going to be stunned and brought back for later questioning. Admittedly, at least half of the Death Eaters managed to raise Shield Charms before any of the attacks hit home- the charms may not have been able to deflect zat blasts back at their origin, but they could at least stop them hitting their target-, but the attacks kept them distracted for a few crucial moments, and that was all that was needed right now.

“Split up and surround them!” Sam yelled over at her allies, as she switched her zat gun for her P-90 even as she spoke. “Remember; stun if possible, wound if that’s not possible, and only kill if you know there’s _no_ other way to deal with them! Teal’c, be sure to question your target before killing him! _Go_!”

With that said, the group charged out from behind the platform, firing their weapons at the Death Eaters even as their foes, realising their initial assault had failed, split up and tried to get around the Stargate to surround them.

Whether the Death Eaters had traditionally relied to fear to achieve victory or were simply out of practice, Sam wasn’t sure, but so far they weren’t striking her as a very coordinated group. Dividing their forces might make them harder to hit, but it also limited the amount of damage they could actually do to their adversaries in a fight; spreading out to surround their foes helped limit the possibility of them being hit, but with something like five to one odds in their enemy’s favour right now, it meant that their enemies were each expecting the other four to do the job for them. She and Teal’c had already managed to nail a couple of the Death Eaters with a few well-placed P-90 bullets, and the wizard members of their ‘strike team’ had already managed to take down a couple of Jaffa with some well-aimed stunning spells.

For a moment, Sam was almost able to pretend that they were back where they had been when the Stargate Program had first been put into action to fight the Goa’uld; not fighting evolutionarily superior Priors, but simply fighting Jaffa soldiers, possessing somewhat advanced weaponry but otherwise restricted to simply firing at the other guy. In these cases, it all came down to who had the superior tactical training, and given that the Death Eaters were clearly used to relying on surprise attacks to terrorise their targets, right now, the tactical advantage lay with them.

“G-G- _Get away_!” a voice yelled from off to the side.

Spinning around to face the voice, Sam’s eyes narrowed as she realised who had just yelled those words; even from so far away, the silver hand under the cloak of the rapidly-retreating wizard was unmistakeable.

It was the man that Daniel had called Wormtail when he’d encountered the man on the last planet they’d visited.

The man who’d betrayed Daniel’s parents and forced him to grow up without _any_ kind of decent guardians until he’d been sent to that wizarding school he’d told them so much about.

He may have started Daniel on the path that would have lead to Sam even having the opportunity to get to know him in the first place, but he’d forced Daniel to deal with the knowledge that the most powerful dark wizard in three hundred years was after his blood from the moment he turned eleven years old, all because he was too cowardly to risk his own neck for people who would have died to protect him.

No matter what she might have ‘owed’ Wormtail for bringing Daniel into her life, however indirectly his involvement in driving Daniel to accept Catherine Langford’s job offer all those years ago had been, Sam could _never_ forgive him for what he’d done to the life of the kindest, most caring man she’d ever met or would ever meet.

She’d get back to the fight soon enough; right now, she wanted to make sure that they captured this… _thing_ \- he was such a coward he barely even deserved to be considered human- personally.

Glancing back at the rest of her attack force to ensure that they were dividing themselves up appropriately and the villains were too spread-out to take advantage of her planned absence- she was confident that she could manage her current goal without jeopardising their attack strategy, but she still wasn’t going to run off and leave a potentially vulnerable point in her team’s plan of attack without at least making sure that was the case-, Sam tightened her grip on her P-90 and charged in Wormtail’s direction the man’s silver hand shaking slightly as he raised his wand to point at her.

“S-s-stay _back_!” he yelled desperately as she headed towards him, the rapidly-retreating wizard soon finding himself within a nearby cluster of trees as Sam glared at him. “I-I’m warning y-you-”

“Give me one good reason _why_ I should be afraid of a warning from a man who was so afraid of death he sold out his best friends to a man that he _knew_ was going to kill him?” Sam retorted, raising her gun as she glared at Wormtail, allowing a hostility the likes of which she’d originally felt when Kelowna tried to deny their role in Daniel’s death fill her as she advanced on the man before her. “If you’d had _any_ kind of courage, you would have at least _tried_ to fight back, but from what I’ve heard from Daniel and Remus, you just gave up Daniel’s parents without even _trying_ to fight against this ‘Voldemort’ just because you were afraid for yourself.”

“H-he was taking over _everywhere_ -” Wormtail began.

“I’ve spent the last few years of my life as part of an organisation fighting aliens who have been posing as gods on the worlds they visited for the last several thousand _years_ , and _nobody_ defected despite the fact that they operated on a far larger scale than this ‘Voldemort’; don’t even _think_ about using his power as an excuse for what you did,” Sam stated resolutely, as she raised her gun and pointed it at Wormtail. “And if you try to claim that you just went for the option that kept you alive, then, since you clearly define your actions based on what allows you to survive, I only have two more options for you to think about right now; drop the wand, or I’ll shoot you.”

For a moment, Wormtail’s eyes flicked downwards to look at his wand, evidently contemplating casting a spell.

“Don’t even think about it,” Sam said, cutting off that train of thought before it could go any further. “I don’t know for sure if your Shield Charms can affect bullets- we weren’t exactly willing to test that in case somebody ended up injured-, but since they were originally created to deflect a spell- which is essentially an energy weapon rather than a physical attack, whether or not it’s originally a magical or scientific means of generating energy- I’m betting that you can still catch bullets with the rest of us no matter what spell you try to use to stop them.”

Raising her P-90 once again, Sam allowed her finger to tighten over the trigger as she glared at the man before her. Even as she knew she couldn’t do it, that it was Daniel and Daniel alone who deserved to decide whatever punishment this man might have to endure for what he had done to Daniel’s parents all those years ago…

She couldn’t deny that there was a part of her that _really_ wanted an excuse to give into that aspect of her that had been practically personified by her deceased Replicator duplicate and just shoot the man before her right now.

But she couldn’t do that; right now, they had to bring back as many Death Eaters as they could for questioning. Teal’c taking out that Snape person was one thing- from what Daniel had told them about him the former teacher was too dangerous to risk the possibility of him getting out once they were back on Earth-, but someone like this? A coward whose main reason for being on Voldemort’s side was that he originally wanted to save his own life and who had apparently been allowed to continue because he participated in a ritual that brought the man back in the past?

His actions were despicable, but they’d mainly been motivated by cowardice rather than genuinely malicious intent.

Sam wasn’t going to kill a man because he was a coward, no matter how much she might despise him. Killing an evil man was one thing, but she wasn’t going to kill someone who’d primarily been scared for his life; if he couldn’t even really fight back, it was as close to murder as made no difference, as far as she was concerned.

After a moment’s more hesitation, as Sam stared resolutely at Wormtail and the small wizard continued to shake as though he’d suddenly landed in the Arctic, her opponent dropped his wand and raised his hands in a gesture of surrender.

“Wise choice,” Sam said simply, as she lowered her P-90 and pulled out the plastic ties that they traditionally used when dealing with non-Goa’uld enhanced prisoners; Wormtail’s silver hand was probably formidable in a fight, but his arm was clearly no stronger than a conventional human being, so he wouldn’t be able to break the bonds that way. “Turn around and don’t try anything, or I’ll shoot you.”

As Wormtail shakily turned around, leaving Sam free to walk forward and bind his hands, she could only hope that things went as well for Teal’c in his own personal ‘mission’ as they’d gone for her.

* * *

  
After Colonel Carter had issued her command, Teal’c didn’t hesitate to act; his weapon clutched in his hands, he charged towards the greasy-haired figure of Severus Snape, his goal fixed in his mind as he charged towards his opponent. The man stood defiant as he aimed his wand at Teal’c, clearly prepared to hit the Jaffa with a spell at the first opportunity that presented itself; the wizard evidently assumed that his magic would be enough to protect him.However, if Teal’c had learned anything from his time working in the SGC, it was that access to resources that were denied to your opponent did not guarantee that you would triumph in a confrontation between the two of you. If he had learned anything from the Tollan, he had learned that it was foolish to count exclusively on one particular defence to keep you safe; the Tollans’ reliance on their ion cannons had doomed them in the end when that advantage had been negated, and this man’s reliance on his magic would doom him.

As his foe launched his first spell- yelling an incantation that Teal’c recognised as being the pain-inducing curse Daniel had mentioned during their briefings on magic-, Teal’c instantly ducked to the side, launching a staff blast that his foe only just managed to deflect with a Shield Charm. Teal’c was unable to stop a mild twinge of annoyance at what had just happened- evidently the Death Eaters had decided to test what would happen if they were required to go up against Goa’uld weaponry- but pushed it aside to focus on the fight at hand; becoming frustrated at what he could not control would accomplish nothing.

“So, you’re the traitor who defied his alien master to work with a group of pathetic mudbloods?” Snape said, looking scornfully at Teal’c as the Jaffa regained his feet from dodging the curse, his staff weapon clutched tightly in one hand as he stared at the wizard.

“And you are the traitor who belittled one of the finest men I have ever known because you were unable to see past a grudge you bore his father,” Teal’c retorted, staring grimly at the former Potions teacher as he tightened his grip on his staff weapon.

“What; you’re talking about _Potter_?” Snape spat, looking scathingly at Teal’c. “I never understood why _anybody_ thought he was worth anything as an opponent for the Dark Lord; he was a completely incompetent idiot-”

“Your very words betray your own ignorance,” Teal’c interjected, his eyes narrowing as he glared at Snape. “Daniel Jackson- the man you once knew as Harry Potter- has accomplished many great things in his life since you and he last encountered each other. He has prevailed over beings who have spent centuries posing as gods, he has overcome great odds to form exceptional bonds with a diverse range of beings, and he possesses an intellect that has enabled him to solve mysteries that have plagued countless men before him.”

Allowing himself a slight smirk as he studied the Potions professor before him, Teal’c noted the tightening of the man’s fingers around his wand; evidently he was preparing to attack, but seemed to be willing to allow Teal’c to say what he was about to say.

Given what Daniel Jackson had told Teal’c about some spells requiring emotional force behind them to be truly effective, Teal’c suspected that this man was seeking all the reasons to hate him that he could learn in order for him to ensure that his next spell had enough power behind it.

Teal’c was not in the mood to disappoint him.

“You, on the other hand,” he stated simply, glaring at his opponent as he spoke, “have, to the best of my knowledge, accomplished precisely what I would expect from a man who allows a childhood grudge to dominate his adult life; _absolutely nothing_.”

“AVADA KEDAVRA!” Snape roared, launching a jet of green light from his wand towards Teal’c. It was barely even a challenge for Teal’c to dodge the subsequent attack; at the distance between him and Snape at present, he had more than enough time to move out of the path of the spell before it struck him. Raising his staff weapon, Teal’c launched his own attack on his opponent, and was only slightly surprised when his foe repeated his own action and dived out of the path of the blast; the man may be a fool when it came to matters concerning the character of Daniel Jackson, but Teal’c doubted that he had come as far as he had by being an idiot in other matters.

As the man turned to launch more spells at him, Teal’c continued to roll along the ground, never remaining in one place long enough for Snape to hit him with a curse as he struggled to reach a position where he could strike back. The wizards’ need to actually say- or, in the case of what Daniel Jackson had described as non-verbal magic, decide- what their attacks would do to the target provided Teal’c with a certain advantage, as all he needed was an opportunity to shoot and a weapon with which to do so, but the sheer range of possible curses Snape could throw at him limited Teal’c’s opportunities to retaliate; he was reluctant to leave himself potentially open to someone who could do anything to him with only a single weapon.

Then something that Teal’c had once witnessed on television occurred to him, and he briefly felt like hitting himself if he hadn’t already been in danger of being struck.

He might not be able to aim the weapon yet, but- based on their earlier tests showing that naqahdah like the type used to make the weapon could endure at least a couple of hits from spells without any damage- he _did_ have another idea for an attack strategy that he could use…

As soon as the strategy had crossed his mind, Teal’c had thrown the staff weapon towards Snape like a javelin, leaping to his feet and charging towards the former Hogwarts teacher even as Snape tried to avoid being struck in the face by the staff after his attempts to banish it away failed; just as the naqahdah used for ships could absorb smaller weapons blasts without damage, the staff weapons could absorb spells without being affected. Even as he drew up towards Snape, Teal’c grabbed his staff weapon out of the air, pointing it at Snape’s head even as Snape- realising that he no longer faced being struck in the face by a large metal rod- aimed his wand at Teal’c’s face.

The situation was clear.

The second Snape attempted to cast a spell, Teal’c would shoot.

Even if Snape cast a non-verbal spell, Teal’c would still fire his staff blast on reflex as the spell hit him.

At the current distance between the two of them, there was no possibility of Snape avoiding Teal’c’s staff blast if he chose to cast a spell.

After a moment’s silence, Snape clearly trying to think of some other action he might be able to take and Teal’c deciding to give his foe one last opportunity to consider his actions, the Jaffa finally spoke.

“Demonstrate the appropriate respect to Daniel Jackson and join us in our goal to vanquish Lord Voldemort from this life and I shall spare you,” he said, his gaze fixed resolutely on Snape’s face.

For a moment, Snape seemed to be considering Teal’c’s request/order as he stared back at the Jaffa, but then he opened his mouth and Teal’c knew instantly that his opponent had made the wrong choice.

“ _Ava_ -” Snape began.

Teal’c didn’t even let him finish the word he was about to say; as far as he was concerned, the man had possessed just the one opportunity to escape punishment for the way he’d treated Teal’c’s friend, and he had just sacrificed it. Before Snape could even say the next syllable, Teal’c had fired the staff blast at practically point-blank range into the former Potions Master’s face, sending the one-time Hogwarts teacher collapsing to the ground, his head practically destroyed.

Looking at the body of his opponent, Teal’c nodded resolutely.

It was over.

The man before him had learned what would happen to those who showed disrespect to Daniel Jackson, and his past crimes against his friend had been avenged.

With that personal mission attended to, Teal’c turned his attention back to the field around him, as his new allies struggled against their old enemies, and hurried back into the battle.

Severus Snape may have been unwilling to talk to him, but Teal’c was confident that he and his allies would soon discover one among their foes who knew something more about Voldemort’s return from the dead than Draco Malfoy had revealed when questioned.

He could only hope that Daniel Jackson learned the answer to the mystery of his enemy’s return soon; this man had already taken enough from him as the situation currently stood, and Teal’c had no desire for his friend to endure the return of this adversary for longer than he was required to do so.

* * *

  
As Daniel blinked his eyes open, he instinctively clutched at his head, trying to convince himself that he really _didn’t_ have multiple sharp needles digging into his brain on all sides, he glanced around himself to try and establish his current location and whether or not he should be worried.The first thing he noticed was that he was simply lying in the SGC medical bay rather than lying in some off-world prison or something like that; at least he was in the hands of friends (He doubted that Voldemort had the knowledge, the resources or the inclination to try and trick him into thinking that he’d been rescued when he was really a prisoner; his old enemy would want him to _know_ that he’d been defeated after all the trouble he’d caused the self-proclaimed ‘greatest wizard in the world’).

The second thing was that he wasn’t alone; at least two other beds in the room were occupied, although he freely acknowledged that there might be other people in the area that he couldn’t hear.

The third thing was the identities of the people in the immediately occupied beds; Hermione Granger and Cameron Mitchell, both currently unconscious from whatever injuries they had sustained in the confrontation with Malfoy.

The fourth thing was the rather unexpected presence of the woman currently standing beside Hermione’s bed, who had just stood up to look in his direction; presumably she’d heard him groan.

“Ah, Mr Potter, you’re awake,” she said, smiling slightly at him. “I see that two decades haven’t decreased your habit of getting into dangerous, potentially life-threatening situations.”

“What the… Madam Pomfrey?” Daniel said, staring incredulously at the form of his old school nurse as she stood beside the bed of his old school friend; he hadn’t been expecting to see _her_ of all people here. “Wh-what are _you_ doing here?”

“Oh, Remus and Rubeus requested my presence here after you were injured; they apparently don’t want to make it too public among the wizarding world that you’re still alive unless they absolutely have to,” Madam Pomfrey replied, smiling slightly as she looked at the man who had been her most regular patient when he was a child. “When I heard that you were alive… well, how could I resist the chance to see what _new_ ways of hurting yourself you’d come up with in your new profession?”

“Uh… thanks?” Daniel said, smiling slightly uncertainly at this other ambivalent reminder of his old life in Hogwarts. In many ways, Madam Pomfrey and Janet Frasier had been so like each other that he’d sometimes wondered if they were actually related; the two doctors had both had a certain knack for sticking him back together no matter what had just happened to him while still leaving him feeling guilty about putting them to so much trouble in the first place.

“You know, Mr Potter,” Madam Pomfrey sighed as she looked at him, “I sometimes wonder how it is someone who has survived as much as you seem to have seems to have yet to fully grasp the idea that you’re meant to _avoid_ getting injured when you’re in a dangerous situation?”

“Would you believe that it’s because I just keep dealing with increasingly dangerous bad guys and/or situations who have this annoying habit of whipping something new out of their arsenal to try and kill me with?” Daniel asked hopefully, smiling in what he had been told was a charming manner.

“Then you need to try and _avoid_ making yourself such a prominent target for those people,” Madam Pomfrey bluntly informed him, before she sighed and turned back towards the door. “In any case, all I can do for you and your friends now is give them time; I have other patients that require my attention. When Minister Granger wakes up, be sure to have her take the potion by her bedside as soon as possible; she should remember what to do from the fight in your fifth year in the Department of Mysteries.”

Before Daniel could reply to that, Madam Pomfrey had walked out of the infirmary, leaving him to lie back in bed and allow himself a slight smile at this other sign of his past having come back.

It was almost amusing, in a way; he’d spent so long denying all the memories of his time in the wizarding world that, on some level, he’d ended up trying to forget about the good memories as well, and now here he was, facing the good times once again even as he found himself facing his old nightmare once again.

He’d known there’d _been_ good memories, of course- his time on the quidditch team as seeker before he’d left school to hunt for the horcruxes, those moments he’d spent with Ron and Hermione before the war had begun again and they’d been unable to spend much time together as they had before, his dates with Ginny during those few private moments they’d managed to spend together- but after all the losses he’d suffered in the magical world, in many ways he’d found it easier to repress those memories than reflect on them.

He’d had fun back in those days, of course, but reflecting on those times just led to him remembering why they’d had to end in the first place, and that had only left him feeling depressed all over again. In the end, he’d just found it easier to try and forget everything that had happened to him back then and focus on the joys of his new life.

It may have had its sorrows, too, but at least this time around he could actually do something to the people who’d been responsible for them. Voldemort had already died when his followers had dealt their most devastating blow to Harry’s life; when Sha’re had died, there had still been several Goa’uld out there for him to defeat, even after Apophis had died in the battle against the Replicators, which had at least given him something to take out his rage on.

Then, of course, he’d gone and made things _more_ difficult for himself by falling for-

_Hold it_ right _there_! Daniel told himself, slapping himself slightly on the forehead; the _last_ thing he wanted was to start thinking about _that_ issue all over again. He had enough problems with Voldemort having been resurrected; the last thing he needed was to take the chance that Voldemort would tap into whatever remained of their old link- would it really have survived whatever ritual Voldemort had used to bring himself back to life on this occasion?- and learn how to effectively hurt him _this_ time around.

He’d lost Ginny to Voldemort’s followers before they’d had the chance to really have a life together, and Sha’re had been taken from him after only a short time with each other; he was _not_ going to give Voldemort any more potential ammunition to use against him in a fight. Sam could handle herself in a dangerous situation, he knew that almost better than anyone, but if Voldemort _really_ wanted to get his hands on her…

Even after everything he’d been through since joining SG-1- hell, even after he’d _died_ while on that mission to Kelowna-, he just didn’t think he could quite handle it if he lost _another_ woman he… cared for (Don’t think the word; don’t _ever_ think the word).

“Something on your mind?” a voice said from off to Daniel’s side. Glancing over in the direction of the voice, Daniel was relieved to see that the voice was only Mitchell, sitting up in a nearby bed and looking none the worse for wear from the curse. He seemed a little pale from what Daniel presumed was the blood loss caused by the curse, but that was the only sign of his latest injury.

“Oh, nothing,” Daniel replied off-handedly, trying to look casual as he lay back in his bed; he didn’t want to prompt any questions that he’d have to avoid answering. “Just… well, seeing everyone again, fighting Malfoy… brings back memories, you know?”

“Certainly _sounded_ like it,” Mitchell said, looking critically at the archaeologist as he sat up in his bed as Daniel looked over in his direction. “Just out of curiosity, when you talked about him not taking anyone _else_ you loved from you… you weren’t just speaking of a ‘friend’ kinda love when you were thinking about Sam, were you?”

Daniel blinked in shock.

“Wh-what?” he said, looking in confusion over at Mitchell. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about-”

“Jackson, it may have hurt when I got sliced like that, but that doesn’t mean I went down straight away, y’know?” Mitchell pointed out, looking at his friend with a slight smile. “I may not know you _that_ well, but I think I know you enough to guess that you weren’t _just_ talking about losing people you loved as friends when you were beating the crap out of that guy… and I’m no expert, but given that you’re not gay, and you haven’t shown any sign you think of the Minister over there as anything more than a sister, I think I can make a pretty good guess regarding _who_ you were thinking of as well, mmm?”

Despite his long practice in keeping his emotions on that topic secret, Daniel couldn’t stop a shocked expression crossing his face as Mitchell correctly guessed at the secret he’d been trying to keep for the last two years.

As if he hadn’t had enough on his plate to deal with already, now he had _this_ to cope with?


	22. Conversations and Revelations

“Look, Mitchell,” Daniel said, trying to conceal just how much Mitchell’s deduction had struck home, “you’ve made a good guess there, but that’s all it is; a guess. I don’t feel _anything_ for Sam beyond what I’d feel for anyone who’s been my friend as long as she has; we’re both friends, and that’s all there is to it, on both sides-”

“No offence, Jackson,” Mitchell pointed out as he sat up, looking critically at his friend as he spoke, “but if neither of you feel anything for each other beyond friendship, then how come _you’re_ the guy she invited to Cassandra Fraisier’s graduation a few months back; her college wasn’t _that_ far away from Washington, after all? How come you always make sure you’re available when she needs somebody to talk to and know when she just needs to be left alone; I’ve known her for longerthan you, and I _still_ don’t get that at times? How come you’re the one who went to try and help comfort her after Orlin went whacko and lost all his Ancient knowledge after he Descended? How is it you’re the one she told me she’d missed the most when she came back here during that ‘Supergate’ thing? And- the most important point, I might add- how come you’re the only guy she’s ever met who she manages to get along with _without_ getting into an argument with him at least once? Daniel, seriously, not only is there definitely _something_ there on your part, but if Sam doesn’t at least partly feel the same way, I’ll have T. stick a Goa’uld in my stomach this time tomorrow.”

Daniel blinked.

Firstly, he couldn’t believe that he’d really been _that_ obvious about how he felt about Sam that Mitchell of all people had picked up on it (Meaning no disrespect to Mitchell’s intelligence, of course; the only reason Daniel was surprised was that, of all of them, he’d had the least opportunity to see Sam and Daniel interact on a daily basis).

Secondly, there was actually _any_ kind of ‘evidence’ that Sam could feel the same way about _him_ as he felt about her?

Maybe he might actually…

_No_ , Daniel told himself, stopping that train of thought before it could go any further.

Mitchell’s ‘evidence’ for Sam feeling the same way about him might sound good in theory, but he’d never seen the way that Sam looked at Jack back when all four of them had been on SG-1; he was only basing his theory on what he’d seen when Sam was restricted to him for comfort now that Jack had moved up to Washington after being appointed head of Homeworld Security. If Jack O’Neill had spent any significant length of time at the base since Mitchell had joined SG-1, Daniel had no real doubts that the lieutenant-colonel would have a totally different theory to what he had at the moment…

“Ugh…” a voice groaned from off to the side, giving Daniel a much-welcomed opportunity to turn his attention away from an increasingly uncomfortable conversation.

“Hermione?” he asked, sitting up slightly in his bed- trying to restrain the slight wince as his Cruciatus-inspired headache kicked in once again- to look over at one of his oldest living friends, where she currently lay on the opposite side of him from where Mitchell was currently resting. “How are you doing?”

“Lousy…” Hermione replied weakly, turning her head to smile slightly at Daniel. “Malfoy used… the same thing that Dolohov did… didn’t he?”

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Daniel chuckled slightly at the memory.

“ _Exactly_ the same thing, despite being able to speak,” he informed her, grateful beyond words for this opportunity not to deal with Mitchell’s questions at the moment; he’d probably have to get back to them later, he knew, but for the moment he was just enjoying the opportunity to talk to an old friend about an old pain in the neck. “It looks like he hasn’t changed that much, at least; even after twenty years, he still doesn’t seem to have the killer instinct.”

“Mmm…” Hermione replied, smiling slightly herself before her eyes fell on the bottles beside her bed, a slightly sour expression instantly crossing her face as she took in the sight before her.

“Madam Pomfrey said you’d know what to take,” Daniel explained, another slight smile crossing his face as he noticed Hermione’s distasteful reaction; even after two decades, she evidently still hated having to take medicines. “Sorry.”

“Nobody’s fault… except Malfoy’s, of course,” Hermione said as casually as possible as she sat up in bed, picked up one of the bottles, and began to drink it.

“So, Hermione,” Mitchell’s voice suddenly broke in from off to the side, “any chance you could back me up on my theory about Daniel being in love with Sam?”

If Hermione had been anyone else, Daniel was sure she would have spat out the potion in shock; as it was, she only just managed to swallow the before her jaw dropped from shock at Mitchell’s last statement, her eyes wide as she turned to look at her new and old friends.

* * *

  
Even as Daniel, Mitchell and Hermione were regaining consciousness in the medical wing, General Landry was currently sitting in his office with Fred and George Weasley on either side of him, patiently waiting for the IOA representative who had only recently been dispatched in response to General Landry’s recent report. The Weasley twins had already prepared a small ‘taster kit’ of the more interesting items from their joke business, and Landry was reasonably confident from their descriptions of the items in question that it would prove enough to win over the IOA representative to see the merits of allowing the wizards to continue using the Stargate for the duration of this crisis.So long as he avoided making any specific promises regarding the wizards’ remaining behind after this particular crisis was over- he wasn’t going to force them into anything, no matter what the IOA tried to make him do-, this should work out well enough.

Finally, just as Fred was turning to look at him in a clearly inquiring manner, the door opened and the suited form of Richard Woolsey stepped into the office, looking critically at General Landry and the red-headed twins on either side of him.

“General Landry,” Woolsey said briefly, nodding at the man behind the desk before his attention turned to the new arrivals on either side of him. “And these would be these… _wizards_ … that Doctor Jackson has insisted you grant access to?”

“If you’ve read the report I sent, you’ll know that we didn’t have a great deal of choice in the matter,” Landry replied, leaning forward slightly as he looked at Woolsey. “The Stargate had already been accessed by some of Doctor Jackson’s old enemies from his school days; if we were going to have any chance of eliminating these wizards before they made contact with the Priors in this galaxy and became an even greater threat, it was felt that expert assistance in dealing with this kind of situation would be required. Doctor Jackson supplied us with information about how to make contact with these individuals, he and SG-1 brought them here and briefed them on the situation, and they agreed to help us.”

“I see,” Woolsey said, his tone neutral as he looked inquiringly at the two redheads on either side of Landry. “And might I ask what your names are?”

“Fred Weasley,” Fred replied, stepping forward to shake Woolsey’s hand.

“And I’m George,” George added, smiling casually at the man as he repeated his brother’s actions.

“Or is it the other way around?” Fred added, smirking teasingly at the IOA representative. “We can never be sure; it all gets so confusing after a while, really.”

“Indeed,” Woolsey said dryly, before he turned back to look at Landry. “And you believe that these… people… are actual _wizards_? It appears to be a significant stretch from what I have observed of them…”

“Oh, come on, aren’t you even going to give us a chance?” Fred asked, smiling slightly at Woolsey as he reached into his pocket and pulled out, of all things, a cream cake, which he subsequently handed to the man before him. “Look, why don’t you just sit down, have a bit of cake, and we can talk about this in more detail, mmm?”

Frowning for a moment, Woolsey sighed, took the cake, and bit into it, instantly turning into what looked like an oversized canary.

Landry blinked.

“What?” he said, staring incredulously at the large yellow bird now standing on his desk before he turned to look at the twins. “What was _that_ for?”

“Well, we talked with Colonel Carter a bit before she left, and she recommended that, if we _really_ wanted to convince this guy that we were wizards rather than just some loonies who _think_ we’re wizards and actually just use holograms or something like that, our best bet was to give him something that would transform him himself into something else,” George clarified, mere seconds before the canary’s feathers moulted and Woolsey was once again sitting in the seat before them, looking in an outraged manner at the twins.

“What was _that_ all about?” he yelled, staring incredulously at the twins; Landry had never seen Woolsey express so much emotion before.

“Making a point, Mr Woolsey,” Fred replied casually, his arms folded as he spoke, the grin on his face the only sign that he’d enjoyed what had just taken place as much as Landry had. “If my brother and I had tried out the product ourselves, you might have believed that we’d simply used holograms or something like that; this way, we guarantee that you have no other possible explanation for what happened to you other than that you actually _did_ turn into a canary for a few seconds.”

For a moment, Woolsey simply stared incredulously at the man before him, as though he couldn’t believe anybody at the SGC would be so nonchalant about turning an IOA representative into a _canary_ of all things, but after that moment had passed he seemed to get himself under control, sitting calmly down in the seat as he looked critically at the twins.

“All right,” he said simply, raising his hands to clasp them thoughtfully as he stared at the two wizards. “I acknowledge that… you may have _some_ skills that we haven’t encountered before.”

With that said, his eyes narrowed as he looked critically at the two of them once again. “However, if that is the extent of your abilities, I fail to see what merit you can bring to the Stargate Program on a long-term basis; the ability to turn people into canaries by making them eat a cake, while somewhat… amusing, has little benefit in a combat situation-”

Not even saying a word, George whipped out his wand, pointed it at Woolsey, and the government agent suddenly found himself hovering in mid-air, at least three feet off his seat, with George doing nothing more than pointing his wand at him.

“How about this?” George asked, tilting his head inquiringly to one side as he looked at the man before him. “Combat-wise, we can also disarm, stun, and immobilise our opponents with some of our more basic spells- there's a whole heap of other options we could use as well if we wanted to-, but you don’t have a weapon I can use to demonstrate the first and I’m not entirely sure how to get you back to normal if I use the other two, so I figured that this one was the best one to demonstrate right now.”

“P-p- _put me down_!” Woolsey yelled, looking indignantly at the joke shop owner standing nonchalantly before him.

“As you wish,” George said, lowering Woolsey easily down into his seat- he saw no need to unnecessary antagonise the man, after all-, before he slid his wand back into his pocket and smiled casually at the IOA official. “So, with that little demonstration in mind, how do you feel about letting us stick around for a bit longer, mmm?”

* * *

  
“Harry’s _WHAT_?” Hermione yelled, looking over incredulously at Mitchell.

“He’s in love with Sam,” Mitchell repeated, smiling slightly at his team’s archaeologist before he looked back at Hermione. “Had a few theories about it before now, of course, but this was pretty much the first time I had anything that couldn’t be seen as just him seeing her as a good friend; he was yelling about not letting that Malfoy guy take the people he _loved_ away from him while he was beating the berk into a bloody pulp, and, judging by his tone, I’m pretty sure he wasn’t referring to a _friend_ style of love, if you get my meaning?”

“Uh… _that’s_ what you’re basing this theory on?” Hermione asked, looking sceptically at Mitchell. “Colonel, as much as I respect that you know _Daniel_ better, I knew Harry when he was growing up, and-”

“Firstly, they’re still the same guy, Miss Granger; just going by different names at different points in their lives,” Mitchell interjected, looking over at Hermione with a slight smile. “Secondly, I know it’s a flimsy theory, but when you add in some of the stuff I’ve seen over the months I’ve been there- them always being there for each other, the fact that they always seem to know precisely when the over guy wants somebody to talk to and when they don’t-, there’s really a surprising amount of evidence in favour of it.”

Then a thought seemed to occur to him, causing a slightly anxious expression to cross his face as he looked back at Sam. “Uh… just to make sure, did Jackson ever show an interest in any blondes while he was at school?”

Hermione blinked at the sudden change of subject.

“You mean… did he date a blonde at Hogwarts?” she replied, clearly convinced by the seemingly pointless question. “Well… no, he didn’t; he had a brief relationship with a Chinese brunette, but apart from that the only girl he dated back then was Ginny Weasley, and she had red hair…”

“Thanks,” Mitchell said, nodding briefly at Hermione before he looked back at Daniel. “So, since a blonde at Hogwarts has been ruled out, and the only serious relationship you’ve had since then to my knowledge that involved a blonde was that Sarah Gardner- and no offence meant, but from what I’ve read I don’t think you guys were all _that_ serious-, who else are you meant to think that Sam was when you were talking about how much you loved her and couldn’t lose her after taking that curse to the head?”

Daniel’s eyes widened in shock.

“You _heard_ that?” he yelled, looking at SG-1’s current leader in shock.

“I rest my case,” Mitchell said simply, leaning back casually in his bed with a satisfied smile on his face. “You knew it was Sam you were talking to when you were half-delirious from getting that screwy curse placed on you, and you talked about her as though you were both already _seriously_ involved.”

“Oh my God…” Hermione whispered, her eyes wide as she looked at Daniel, a broad smile spreading over her face. “You fell in love again? Harry, that’s-”

“Terrible,” Daniel interrupted, lowering his head as he spoke.

Hermione blinked.

“Excuse me?” she said, looking in confusion at her old friend. “Harry, what do you _mean_ it’s terrible that you fell in love with somebody again? If it’s about Ginny, I hardly think she’d want you to be miserable your whole life-”

“Hermione,” Daniel sighed, turning his head slightly as he looked at her, “as much as I appreciate your support in this matter, it’s all academic; Mitchell’s wrong about Sam feeling the same way about me.”

“Excuse me?” Mitchell said, looking at Daniel with a slight smile on his face. “No offence, Jackson, but if she treats you that way and she’s _not_ in love with you, who _is_ she in love with?”

“Who else?” Daniel replied, a slightly sullen tone in his voice as he stared back at his friend. “Jack.”

“‘Jack’ being…?” Hermione asked, waving a hand promptingly before recollection struck her. “Oh, wait a minute; you mentioned him earlier… he was the original leader of your team, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Daniel replied briefly, briefly allowing the pain he felt at that particular recollection to show on his face before he brought his emotions under control once again. “And… well, he and Sam have been in love since pretty much the moment they started working together on SG-1; I somehow doubt that Sam could just… suddenly start feeling that way about _me_ after all this time.”

“And what makes you so sure of that?” Hermione countered, looking resolutely at him. “I mean, I talked for a while with Sam and Teal’c while we were trying to determine the effects that magical means of defence had when used against Goa’uld technology, and from what I gathered when we were talking about your old teammates, General O’Neill’s been up in Washington for a good few months now, and Sam really didn’t seem to be that bothered about it. I admit that I’ve been out of the dating game for a while now, but I think if the two of them were actually seriously interested a little thing like that wouldn’t stop them getting together-”

“It doesn’t matter,” Daniel said listlessly, lying back in bed and staring up at the ceiling, dejection clear on his face. “Even if Jack isn’t actually here, he’s still… he’s still _here_ , if you know what I mean? It’s like… well, Hermione, you know how, after Ron died, we still sometimes felt like he was there when we were travelling?”

“Yes…” Hermione replied, uncertainty clear as she looked sceptically at her friend.

“Well, it’s like that,” the archaeologist said simply. “Just because Jack isn’t here at the moment in person doesn’t mean he isn’t here where it counts. You don’t know what it’s like when Jack _is_ here, Mitchell; the way Sam looks at him, the way she acts around him…”

He sighed sadly, sitting up in bed and leaning forward to hold one hand against his forehead as he stared dejectedly down at the bedsheets. “Everything about her when he’s here just makes it clear that she feels things for him that…”

He paused for a moment, his voice seeming to break as he spoke the last part of the sentence. “That she’ll never feel for me.”

Hermione almost felt like crying as she took in the utter desolation in her friend’s voice.

Why was it that, whether he was Daniel Jackson or Harry Potter, her friend could _never_ get lucky with women? Cho had been an emotional mess, Ginny and this ‘Sha’re’ woman he’d mentioned at the airport had died on him, and now here he was, in love with a woman who was apparently in love with somebody else.

Then again… if this ‘Jack’ person was all the way over in Washington…

“Look, Harry,” Hermione continued after a moment’s reflection, looking resolutely at her friend as she spoke. “I get that you don’t want to get in between Jack and Sam if you think they should be together, but I just need you to ask yourself one crucial thing; can they _really_ belong together?”

Daniel sighed.

“Look, how I feel about their relationship isn’t the issue here, Sam; I’m not going to just take away Jack’s chance because I fell for the woman who’s been in love with him for the last few years,” he said simply. “I don’t deserve to do that to him-”

“Jackson, as much as I respect you for thinking about your friend, I think I know General O’Neill well enough from our meetings to be pretty sure he wouldn’t really _blame_ you for falling for Sam,” Mitchell interjected. “I mean, he’s had his chance and he didn’t take it, so I think- once he gets past any initial issues he might have with it-, he’d respect the fact that Sam picked you in the end-”

“I can’t do that to him,” Daniel insisted, looking like he wanted nothing more than to be able to get away from this conversation but equally aware that he’d have to deal with it later if he didn’t have it now. “After everything we’ve been through together, I just… I don’t want to hurt him.”

“Why not?” Hermione asked, staring in ever-increasing confusion at her old friend. “Why are his feelings about this so important to you, Harry? I mean, I get that you’re close to him, but-”

“‘Close’ doesn’t quite do it justice, Hermione,” Daniel countered, turning to look at the current Minister of Magic with a slightly frustrated look in his eyes, as though he couldn’t believe she was still persisting in this after everything he’d tried to say to her. “Jack… well, he’s _Sirius_.”

* * *

  
“Well,” Woolsey said after a moment’s uncertain silence, during which Fred and George looked at him inquiringly while Landry tried his best not to smile at the flustered expression on the other man’s face, “while I appreciate that you possess some… interesting… abilities, I am uncertain about exactly _how_ useful they will be to us in combat with an alien enemy.”

“Uh, did you miss the part where I had you hovering a few feet in the air?” George pointed out, looking inquiringly at Woolsey. “I’d hardly call _that_ something that wouldn’t be useful in a fight-”

“A fact of which I am well aware, given that the Priors of the Ori have used that ability against us to great extent,” Woolsey retorted, his hands clasped as he leaned forward to stare critically at the two wizards. “Are you even aware of what you would be facing if you travelled through the Stargate? Do you have the first idea what you could be capable of doing against the Priors that we are not able to do at the present moment? Have you even been made aware of what the stakes are should the Priors succeed in their mission to convert this galaxy to their way of life?”

“Uh… you mean how they draw power from being worshipped, right?” Fred asked, looking inquiringly at Woolsey as he leaned forward slightly to better stare the man in the eye. “Yeah, we got filled in on all that by Harry and the others while we were coming in here; we’ve got the essential details about what’s at stake sorted out easily enough.”

“As for the ‘what we can do against them’ bit,” George continued, leaning forward to smile slightly at Woolsey as he continued to talk, “well, look at it this way; you’ve said yourself that your current methods haven’t worked against them so far, so it’s kind of unlikely that we could manage to do a worse job than what you’ve done so far. Try something new… who knows?”

He shrugged casually. “Maybe you’ll get lucky. It can’t hurt, and it could very definitely help; can you honestly look me in the eye and say that you guys _wouldn’t_ appreciate any assistance we can offer?”

For a moment, Woolsey stared silently at the woman before him, evidently lost in his thoughts, before he finally nodded.

“A good argument, Mr Weasley,” he said, a solemn expression on his face as he looked at the two men before him. “I shall, at the very least, consider it, I assure you.”

Just then, before anyone in the room could think of something else to say, the alarms sounded that indicated an incoming traveller via the Stargate, prompting all of the room's current inhabitants to get to their feet and depart the office.

Whatever had just taken place on the planet, all of them, regardless of their feelings or their personal stake in the matter, wanted to know the situation as soon as possible.

* * *

  
For a moment the medical room was silent- Mitchell from confusion, Daniel from frustration and Hermione from shock- before Hermione broke it.

“Wait a minute; Sirius _survived_ going through that Veil thing and ended up all the way over _here_?” she yelled, looking like she would have leapt to her feet and started marching around in frustration if she’d been in better health. “What the hell did he do _that_ for; didn’t he _know_ how much you’d miss him? Did he even _try_ to make contact with us? Did he even _care_ -?”

Despite the seriousness of the current situation, Daniel couldn’t stop himself from smiling slightly at Hermione’s outburst.

“Sorry; I don’t think I phrased that quite right,” he said, smiling slightly apologetically at Hermione before his expression became more serious once again. “Jack’s not _actually_ Sirius, Hermione; it’s just, that…”

He sighed slightly as he lowered his head, clearly trying to make sure he phrased what he was about to say correctly this time around, before he looked back at her. “… he might as _well_ be.”

For a brief moment, Hermione simply sat in silence as she reflected on what Daniel had just said to her, before she finally spoke once again.

“You mean… he’s not _actually_ Sirius, but he fills a similar role in your life to the role that Sirius played when he was alive?” she said, looking slightly uncertainly at the former ‘Boy’-Who Lived as he sat in the bed beside her. “Like… older-brother-verging-on-father-figure status?”

"Uh, sorry to interrupt, but any chance of a cast list for those of us who came in late?" Mitchell asked, raising a hand as he lay in his bed.

"Oh, yeah, sorry," Daniel said, looking sheepishly over at his friend. "Sirius Black was my dad's best friend at school and my godfather; he was framed for having betrayed my parents to Voldemort and spent twelve years in prison, but he later managed to escape and helped me out on a few occasions before he..."

He swallowed slightly as he spoke- even after so long, the memories of that time weren't something he liked to think about- before he continued to speak. "Anyway, the point is, Jack... well, he's almost the new Sirius, really. As Hermione said, he's almost a combination of older brother and nearly-father-figure, and..."

Sighing in a slightly dejected manner, he lay back in his bed once again, a sad, quiet tone in his voice as he spoke. "Anyway… he’s lost so much already; I can’t take anything _else_ away from him-”

“And who’s to say he even wants it any more?” Hermione countered; she couldn’t believe how stubborn Harry could be at times. “I mean, you said yourself that Jack’s moved up to Washington and he still hasn’t actually done anything about his relationship with her; I hardly think that you could legitimately call it ‘taking’ when he’s not even actually _dating_ her.”

“Look, worst-case scenario, you ask her out and she says she’s seeing him; you can just back out of it and claim that you only meant in a ‘friend’ way rather than a ‘date’ way, right?” Mitchell added, looking encouragingly at the team’s archaeologist. “C’mon, Jackson, what happened to the guy who tried to tell an Ancient she needed to get off her ass and do something about the situation?”

Despite his dejected mood, Daniel couldn’t stop himself from smiling slightly as he listened to Mitchell’s praise of his attempt to convince Oma to take action against Anubis the last time he’d Ascended, only for the grin to fade as he took in what Mitchell was asking him to do.

“It’s not the _same_ , Mitchell,” he said, wishing his new commanding officer would understand the point he was trying to make. “I… I’ve got so much more to lose on a _personal_ level if I try what you’re suggesting and it doesn’t work out. Jack would hate me, Sam would just be uncomfortable around me at best…”

He shook his head somewhat sadly. “I… I can’t risk it… I just _can’t_ …”

Hermione had just opened her mouth to try another tactic to convince Daniel to take a chance when the main door opened and the rest of SG-1 came through, followed closely by the assorted wizards and the sole remaining active witch who had responded to Daniel’s request for help. Despite her desire to help her old friend see sense and at least take a chance at getting what he wanted, Hermione instantly shut her mouth as she saw the subject of their current discussion enter the room; she somehow doubted that Harry would appreciate them continuing to talk about this topic under the current conditions.

“Good, you’re awake,” Lupin said, smiling slightly at the three figures in the surrounding bed as they sat up slightly to look at the new arrivals. “Everyone’s well, I trust?”

“Oh, about as well as you’d expect, given that I need to take _these_ things again,” Hermione groaned, jerking her thumb at the mass of potions bottles beside her bed before her face assumed its usual inquisitive appearance. “So, how did this mission go? Any luck?”

“Well… yes and no, to put it simply,” Sam said, shaking her head apologetically as she and the others sat down around the group (Hermione and Mitchell both noted with no small degree of satisfaction that Sam deliberately sat on the end of Daniel’s bed when there were more than enough chairs for her to have sat somewhere else more comfortably). “We managed to capture or kill most of the Death Eaters there, along with a few of Hestia’s Jaffa- they seem to be some of the more fanatical examples of their kind that we’ve encountered, really; she was already fairly isolated even before the System Lords fell, and her alliance with Voldemort seems to have totally convinced them that she’s a god-, but none of them knew anything about how Voldemort came back.”

“Do we have anything on where he went next?” Mitchell asked curiously.

“Not so much as a couple of chevrons,” Tonks said apologetically. “I tried legilimency on a couple of them; either they’re accomplished occlumens or they weren’t in a position to see where Voldemort went to next.”

“Ah,” Mitchell said, sighing slightly as he sank back down into the bed. “Well, so much for that hope…”

“Just out of curiosity, who’d we get this time around anyway?” Fred asked, looking inquiringly over at Lupin.

“Well, we _do_ have… Wormtail in custody,” Lupin replied, looking uncertainly up at Daniel. To his relief, however, the archaeologist didn’t seem that concerned about it; he simply nodded briefly at Lupin and continued to sit silently in bed, evidently wondering if there was anything more he should be aware of. “Oh… and Teal’c killed Severus.”

Daniel blinked.

“You killed Snape?” he asked, looking over inquiringly at Teal’c.

“He showed disrespect to you for over six years because he was unable to forgive something that occurred before you were born, Daniel Jackson,” Teal’c replied in his usual direct manner. “I gave him an opportunity to apologise for his actions, and he did not take it; I thus dealt with him accordingly.”

For a moment, Daniel simply sat in silence at that statement, before he finally looked back at Teal’c with a slight smile on his face.

“Thanks,” he said simply. “I’m… well, I’m glad that’s over.”

Then his expression became significantly less relaxed as he continued to stare at the Jaffa. “And on the topic of things being over, I’ll need your help if we’re going to find out anything more.”

“Huh?” Hermione said, looking in confusion at the sudden resolved expression on Daniel’s face.

“I need Teal’c’s help if I’m going to successfully kel’no’reem,” Daniel replied simply as he looked over at his old friend. “It’s a Jaffa meditation method; I used it once when I needed to access some memories I’d lost after an… accident; it’s a long story that isn’t relevant now.”

Shaking his head, he turned back to look resolutely at Teal’c. “What is important is that, right now, I think I might be able to find out how Voldemort came back by using kel’no’reem to tap into my old link with him and access his memories.”


	23. The Truth Behind the Myth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Regarding Harry’s status as a horcrux, I would like to take this opportunity to clarify a few details. For one thing, Harry was never aware he was a horcrux in this timeline, but by the time of his death. Voldemort was so badly weakened by the loss of the others that he was unable to maintain even the basic form he possessed after his last defeat following his death, particularly since the Harry-horcrux was unintentionally created and hence was not as complete as other horcruxes. I’m theorising that, given all the times Daniel’s died since joining SG-1, the horcrux fragment within him has been destroyed- particularly since he’s Ascended since then; if anything of Voldemort had hung on that long, the purity of Ascension would have ‘burned’ it out of Daniel-, but given how long it remained in Daniel, some small fragments remain inside him on some level. It’s not enough to keep Voldemort alive any more- the fragments are so small it would be like trying to stop yourself being swept over Niagara Falls with a single fishing-line; they’re just too weak to do the job-, but it _is_ enough to allow Daniel to access Voldemort’s mind if he tries hard enough. As a result, Daniel is totally ignorant of his horcrux status, but it doesn’t matter because he’s no longer a powerful enough horcrux for Voldemort to survive

“WHAT?!” Hermione yelled, sitting sharply up in bed before she sat back down again, clutching at her side; she’d almost forgotten about her current poor health. “You’re going to try and go into his mind _willingly_? Are you _insane_?”

“Sorry; you can access his mind?” Mitchell interjected, looking in confusion at his friend. “What are you talking about?”

“It’s part of that old ‘link’ that Voldemort and I used to have that I told you about,” Daniel clarified as he glanced over at his current commanding officer on SG-1. “Essentially, when Voldemort originally tried to kill me, his backfired curse somehow managed to put a piece of himself into me when his body was destroyed, granting me access to a certain degree of his magic and powers, such as his ability to talk to snakes; Professor Dumbledore speculated that it might have also influenced my personality, but I was never entirely sure about that theory.”

“And this has _what_ to do with you accessing his mind?” Sam asked, looking inquiringly at her friend.

“Well, after he got his body back- actually, it started the year before he got his body back, but he was using a rather basic form at that point so it’s possible my link’s mainly based on him having a physical form to provide me with something to ‘tap into’- I started to have dreams- more like visions, in some ways; it was like I was either piggy-backing on his mind while he did things or I was watching him from off to the side- of what he was doing at the present moment. On one occasion Voldemort even managed to send me a false vision- he actually caused the death of someone... close to me... with that one-, but since that point we generally tried to block each other out. I could sometimes use it to get a general feel for his location when Ron, Hermione and I were searching for his horcruxes- know if he was coming close to us, things like that-, but that was about it up until I killed him.”

“Uh... if you could find where he was, wouldn’t he have tried to go and do the same thing to you?” Mitchell asked, looking inquiringly at Daniel. “I mean, if you could sense _him_...”

“He was practically incapable of even spending a few _seconds_ accessing Harry’s mind back then; he tried it once and it apparently caused him to be in total agony, from what Harry told us,” Hermione clarified, looking over at Mitchell as she spoke. “Voldemort may have been a powerful wizard, but he lacked the one thing that Harry’s had in abundance since the beginning; Harry actually _cares_ about people.”

“That is indeed something that has not changed whatever name Daniel Jackson chooses to call himself,” Teal’c said, smiling slightly at Daniel before his expression became more solemn. “You believe that, with the aid of the meditation provided by kel-no-reem, you will be able to re-establish this link?”

“Well, maybe not _totally_ re-establish it- I don’t want to risk giving him full access to my mind again, after all-, just… tap into it enough to make contact and find out how he came back,” Daniel clarified as he looked at Teal’c. “Whenever it was triggered in the past, I only ever witnessed what Voldemort was doing at the present moment, but at that time I was never actually _trying_ to get into his head; I just got into his head when he was feeling particularly murderous or satisfied, sometimes seeing it in a dream if it happened when I was asleep. I’m hoping that, if I try and do it deliberately, when he isn’t expecting it, particularly after everything I’ve learned about meditation and such matters over the years…”

“You think you’ll learn how he came back?” Tonks said, looking slightly sceptically at Daniel. “I don’t know… you really think you’ll manage to find that specific memory? I don’t know much about this whole ‘link’ you’ve got, I admit, but that seems a _bit_ of a stretch, really…”

“With Voldemort walking around the galaxy with access to Goa’uld technology and who knows what else?” Daniel retorted, glaring at the metamorphagus. “In a situation like that, _anything_ we can come up with to get more information is a good thing.”

For a moment the group in the medical bay simply stared silently at their friend, clearly trying to come to a decision either way about what he had just proposed, until Sam finally sighed slightly as she looked at him.

“You’re sure that this is the only way we can find out anything more about him?” she asked, looking at her old friend with a resigned expression on her face. She knew better than most that Daniel could be surprisingly stubborn when he set his mind on something, but still felt obligated to make sure that he knew he didn’t have to do anything he didn’t want to do, no matter how much it would help them.

“I am,” Daniel replied simply.

After a moment’s silence to give Sam time to determine Daniel’s resolve, she sighed in acceptance.

“All right then,” she said, as she stood up, looking inquiringly at her friend as she did so. “Do you want me to let Doctor Lam know that you’ll be setting up the candles here, or would you prefer to move to Teal’c’s room?”

* * *

  
An hour later, Daniel, still feeling slightly sore but nevertheless resolved to accomplish the task he’d set for himself, sat in Teal’c’s old quarters inside the SGC, the Jaffa opposite him as the candles glowed around them. For a moment, Daniel couldn’t help but recall the last time he’d tried something like this- when he’d been trying to tap into his lost memories of his year while he was Ascended-, but those analogies only brought back memories of why he’d Ascended in the first place, and he swiftly pushed them aside.

Even after so many years, the knowledge that his last real chance to escape the pain he’d felt at losing almost everyone he’d ever loved- his parents, Sirius, Ron, Ginny and Sha’re to death, Hermione, Lupin and the remaining Weasleys through his choices, Sarah to Osiris (Albeit as a host rather than in the more traditional sense) and Sam to Jack (In the more traditional sense on that occasion)- had turned out to be a total failure still hurt.

In the end, no matter how hard he’d tried to cope with the fact that he’d never see any of his old friends in the wizarding world again, and that he was drifting apart from the people who’d become the closest things he’d ever had to a family since he’d walked away from the world that had simultaneously saved and destroyed his life, not even access to all the knowledge in the universe had been able to help him. It was only when he returned to his body, once again united with the people he had come to love as though they were his family, that he finally found where he was meant to be; back with them, helping to fight the Goa’uld and stop them from ruining any more lives the way they’d ruined his.

In many ways, the Goa’uld had been almost ‘Voldemort substitutes’, as far as he was concerned; unable to vent his rage at his losses on Voldemort, he’d instead dedicated himself to ensuring that the Goa’uld were vanquished. It probably wasn’t the healthiest thing he could have done, he knew, but he’d had a great deal of issues to deal with when it came to Voldemort, and helping to fight the Goa’uld was the only way he felt he could effectively deal with them.

If nothing else, at least he’d dealt with his old issues about choice this time around; whatever else had happened in the conflict with the Goa’uld, at least he’d actually had a _choice_ in whether or not he fought them. Oh, Sha’re had ‘encouraged’ him to keep fighting in her dying moments, and Jack and Mitchell had both encouraged him to stick with the program when he’d felt particularly down about it, but the fact remained that it had still been his choice to keep fighting, no matter how much they may have wanted him to keep fighting…

“Daniel Jackson?” Teal’c’s voice said, breaking into Daniel’s train of thought; he’d been so busy reflecting on his past he’d almost forgotten what he was doing here in the first place. “Are you well?”

“Fine… just thinking, really,” Daniel said, looking apologetically back at the Jaffa before he focused his attention back on the matter at hand. “So… shall we begin?”

“Indeed,” Teal’c replied, as he sat down in front of Daniel. “Remember, Daniel Jackson, remain silent, or this shall not be successful.”

Nodding briefly, Daniel lowered his head and closed his eyes, focusing his mind back onto whatever aspects of Voldemort remained within him from that failed curse all those years ago, filtering out all distractions from around him.

It was strange, really; in a way, what he was doing now was almost the reverse of Ascension. Unlike when he ascended, when he was allowing himself to become aware of everything around him, here he was trying to focus all of his awareness onto something _inside_ him, thus allowing him to achieve a connection that he simultaneously hated and needed.

His greatest childhood nightmare had come back to life.

It was up to Daniel now to make contact with it and learn how it had done so to ensure that such a thing could never happen again.

With that resolve driving him, he concentrated all of his attention inward towards himself, resolved to find the answers to the questions that he was now about to face.

He was reaching within himself…

He was finding his centre…

He was cutting himself off from the outside world…

He was delving deeper and deeper into his mind…

The darkness that would always inexorably link him and Voldemort surrounding him, trying to crawl out and take him even as it knew that it would never be strong enough to succeed…

* * *

  
_Then, just as Daniel was beginning to wonder if he was going to accomplish anything, he found himself standing in a dark void, the familiar form of Voldemort standing in front of him, staring incredulously at him._

“ _What the-_ Potter _?” Voldemort yelled, staring at him in shock. “What are_ you _going here?”_

“ _Did you forget about that little ‘link’ we have,_ Tom _?” Daniel retorted, folding his arms as he stared at his nemesis. “Just because the scar’s gone doesn’t mean we aren’t still connected to each other; all it took was a bit of patience, some inner focus, and…”_

_He shrugged, allowing himself a slight smirk as he glared at Voldemort; after the older man taking him by surprise so often over the years, it made a nice change to be the one doing the surprising. “Well, here I am.”_

_For a moment Voldemort simply stared at him, clearly unprepared for this new appearance by his old enemy, before he regained his composure and smirked at him in his usual arrogant manner._

“ _Do you really believe that I’m_ frightened _of you now, Potter?” he asked, looking confidently at the archaeologist. “I’ve learned what’s happened since the last time we fought; you ran from the wizarding world like the pathetic coward you are after our final encounter, and from what I can see and what I’ve learnt, you haven’t even bothered to even_ try _and keep up with your magical training. You’re an_ archaeologist _of all things, you pathetic fool; you don’t even seem to_ care _about your heritage-”_

“ _True,” Daniel said, nodding slightly as he smirked at his old foe, “but on the plus side, I_ have _learned how to speak around thirty languages and uncovered the answers to some of the greatest mysteries known to wizards and muggles alike, without even needing to resort to one spell to cheat and do things the easy way. Seriously, in all your life, what have_ you _ever accomplished besides killing a bunch of people?”_

“ _Do not even_ try _to understand my methods, Potter,” Voldemort countered, his familiar sneer still clear on his face. “I have grown beyond the simple confines and limitations of other wizards; I have truly become-”_

“A god, right?” Daniel retorted, shaking his head slightly as he smirked at his old foe. “Voldemort, I’ve experienced what it’s like to have access to the Goa’uld genetic memory; trust me, you’re not yourself.”

“ _No,_ Potter _,” Voldemort responded, his gaze scornful as he studied Daniel, “I am more myself than I ever was… ever since that first day when I learned of my true potential and the power I would possess, every step I have taken has led me to the moment when I would once again return from death itself, more powerful than anything that this world has ever seen before or since-”_

“ _By what; hijacking the body of an alien snake?” Daniel retorted, hoping that his old knowledge of Voldemort’s personality wasn’t too significantly affected by whatever changes the Goa’uld knowledge had caused to the psychopath’s mental state. “That’s not exactly the ‘you’ I remember,_ Tom _; you never liked to depend on anything else before…”_

“ _You know_ nothing _of what I have endured to reach this position, Potter,” Voldemort retorted, glaring angrily at the former Gryffindor Seeker as he ‘walked’ forwards to stand in front of his old foe. “I have risen beyond what you knew me as in the past, to become something-”_

“ _On that topic,” Daniel interrupted, allowing himself a slight smirk at the almost shocked expression on Voldemort’s face- evidently the man still couldn’t believe anyone would dare to interrupt him-, “I think it’s time we found out_ how _you came back.”_

_Before Voldemort could stop him, Daniel had reached up and grabbed his old foe’s head in both hands, throwing his head back as he felt himself plunge into Voldemort’s deepest memories._

_For a moment that seemed to last an eternity, he was aware of Voldemort’s transformation back into a spirit after their last confrontation in the Riddle House, a spirit so weak that it was barely even visible and lacked most of Voldemort’s original consciousness; even now, some of his early memories were uncertain and lost to him…_

_He was drifting through Knockturn Alley eight years ago when he first became aware of something pulling him towards a shop…_

_He was approaching something that, even through Voldemort’s dimmed ‘vision’ (For lack of a better term; Daniel had no idea_ how _Voldemort could ‘see’ anything when he hadn’t even had any eyes at this point) he could clearly see was a Goa’uld canopic jar, like the kind that had been used to hold Osiris and Isis before Osiris had taken the body of Sarah Gardner._

_He was entering it… connections were disrupted and systems destroyed as the magical energy of Voldemort’s spirit disrupted the technology that had kept the symbiote within frozen for so long…_

_He was free of the jar, rapidly slithering along the streets, hurrying towards the beating sound of a nearby human heart, his sense of touch heightened even as his vision had been reduced to almost nothing…_

_He rapidly crawled up a man’s body- aided greatly by his old experiences as a spirit when he had relied on the body of snakes to have any kind of corporeal form-, diving through the mouth on instinct…_

_He was standing up in his new body, examining it in satisfaction as he sensed its not-inconsiderable magical talent, taking in the reflection in a nearby window as he began to access the sheer centuries of knowledge that were now available to him as a result of his new body…_

_And then, the moment that answered the final question; a brief, confusing flash as Voldemort, now within a new body that already bore a more than passing resemblance to the original Tom Riddle, stared back at the shattered jar, recalling how he had learned of its original possession by a wizard who had long ago attempted to overthrow the Pharaoh Rameses I, only to fall before the sheer weight of Rameses’ forces… how he had placed a piece of himself inside the jar to remind himself not to repeat the man’s mistakes shortly after starting at Borgin & Burkes… how the jar had been hidden away in the darker parts of the shop to prevent it from being sold…_

_As Daniel stepped back from Voldemort, breaking the more in-depth connection he’d just established and returning to the more conventional link that he’d established earlier, he didn’t even bother to try and conceal_

“ _You created a_ seventh _horcrux?” the archaeologist said, staring at Voldemort with an expression of mixed incredulity and disgust at how far Voldemort had been willing to corrupt his soul to achieve even some degree of immortality._

_He wasn’t sure who disgusted him more; Voldemort, who would willingly corrupt himself on a spiritual level to try and guarantee that he would live beyond his natural death, or the Goa’uld, who not only corrupted their minds with the continuous use of the sarcophagus technology but also ruined the lives of their hosts at the same time._

_Voldemort’s method of immortality may only affect one person, but his method was so much more repulsive to Daniel after his ascension; at least the Goa’uld couldn’t tarnish a person’s soul, no matter how foul the crimes they committed were._

“ _Just when I thought you’ve gone as low as you can go…” Daniel practically growled, clenching his fists as he stared in cold hatred at the man who had ruined his life before he was even old enough to know about it. “You’re a seriously damaged case, you know that?”_

“ _You know_ nothing _of what I have been through, Potter!” Voldemort roared at Daniel, clearly outraged at his old enemy’s intrusion into his mind; whether because of the breach of privacy or because he didn’t like being reminded that he wasn’t a god was something Daniel couldn’t be sure about. “I have survived_ death itself _-”_

“ _I’ve been killed or died and come back to life on at least six different occasions by now, but you don’t see_ me _going on about it,” Daniel retorted, folding his arms as he stared at his old enemy. “I’m not you,_ Tom _, so I’ll give you one chance right now to get out of this mess you’ve created; end this now, and come back to Earth to stand trial for your crimes, or I_ will _stop you.”_

_Voldemort actually laughed at that._

“You _stop_ me _?” he retorted, looking at Daniel as though the man had just informed him that he’d turned into a chipmunk. “You haven’t done any magic for the last twenty years- you’ve devoted your entire life to_ history _, of all things-, and you honestly believe that you can defeat_ me _? I am a_ god _-”_

“ _You’re an alien parasite with an ego the size of the mountain where I work possessed by the spirit of a man who should have died years ago; you’re not a god,” Daniel interrupted, narrowing his eyes as he glared at his old nemesis. “I’ve encountered beings who could be considered gods, and I’ve seen them fall in the end; you’ll do the same.”_

“ _You really believe that I’m frightened of your_ tales _, Potter?” Voldemort retorted._

“ _Ask about Anubis,” Daniel replied, allowing one corner of his mouth to turn up in a slight smirk as he stared at his old foe. “He was planning to destroy all life in the galaxy and remake it in his image, but I stopped him despite him not even having a fully corporeal body. You’ll be next.”_

_Just so long as Voldemort didn’t manage to probe too deeply into his mind and learn that he hadn’t been_ personally _responsible for Anubis’s defeat, that might be enough to get him thinking…_

* * *

  
With the information he’d come here after now in his possession- and his secondary goal of making Voldemort think about what was waiting for him if he continued to act like a conventional Goa’uld also achieved-, Daniel closed his eyes, felt the link that led back to his body, travelled back along it…

And then, a few moments later, his eyes were open as he once again found himself sitting in Teal’c’s room, the rest of SG-1 and his old friends from the wizarding world gathered around him; evidently he’d spent longer on the mental realm than it had seemed when he was actually there.

“Uh… Hi,” he said after a moment’s pause, smiling slightly as he looked at them apologetically; he privately noted that Hermione was still absent- clearly she still hadn’t completely recovered from Malfoy’s attack- but the rest of the team were all here nevertheless.

“‘Hi’,” Remus repeated, shaking his head slightly as he looked at Daniel. “Harry, you’re a linguist who can, according to what I’ve heard, speak over twenty different languages, and the best thing that you can say after keeping us waiting for you to wake up for the last _hour_ or so is ‘Hi’?”

“It’s been a lot to take in,” Daniel replied simply as he stood up, flexing his shoulders slightly as he looked around at his assorted friends from both his lives. “However, on the bright side, I _did_ find out how Voldemort’s come back; he created another horcrux using a canopic jar belonging to an ancient wizard that just happened to contain a dormant Goa’uld symbiote inside it.”

Mitchell blinked.

“ _Damn_ …” he said, whistling slightly as he looked over at the wizards. “Talk about coincidence, huh?”

“Sorry, I think we missed something here; how does _that_ help us figure out how he’s a Goa’uld?” Fred asked, looking in confusion at Daniel. “I mean, it explains how he’s _alive_ …”

“When I killed him last time, what was left of his soul was significantly weaker than it had been before due to the destruction of his other horcruxes, but this last one gave him just enough strength to remain on this plane of existence even if it wasn’t enough to give him the same degree of strength he’d possessed last time,” Daniel explained. “As far as I can tell, he spent a lot of time after my last encounter with him drifting fairly aimlessly around the world- the state he was left in meant that he was operating mostly on instinct more than anything else- until he finally came close to the location where he’d left his remaining horcrux…”

“And, lemme guess, when he was close enough to the other horcrux he was essentially ‘pulled’ towards the other fragment of his soul and the two of them ended up stuck together, right?” Tonks asked, looking inquiringly at Daniel.

“Exactly,” Daniel said, nodding grimly at the metamorphagus before he turned to look at the rest of the group. “We’d better get moving; the sooner General Landry knows about this, the sooner we can start trying to track down Voldemort again.”

“Let’s rock ‘n roll!” George said, giving Daniel a thumbs-up of approval as the other people in the room followed Daniel’s example and stood up to head for the main briefing room.


	24. Common Government Relations

An hour later, SG-1 and their new wizarding allies- with the exception of the still-weak Hermione, who was currently confined to the infirmary until she wasn’t as dependent on potions as she was at the moment- were staring incredulously at General Landry as he sat back in his chair, looking critically at them as he did so.

“You-you’re putting us on _stand-down_?” Daniel yelled, looking in shock at General Landry. “General, with all due respect-”

“Doctor Jackson,” Landry interjected, looking pointedly at his organisation’s archaeologist as he spoke, “according to that… medi-witch… your colleagues brought here, you’ve just had to endure a curse designed to do nothing but cause pain directly into your skull, and Colonel Mitchell sustained some fairly unpleasant injuries from that spell that was used against him. I respect this ‘Madam Pomfrey’s’ opinion in matters of magic, but given the alien technology the two of you have been exposed to over the years, coupled with the severity of the situation we currently find ourselves facing, I feel it best if you and your teammates take the next couple of days off to guarantee that you’re in the best possible condition before returning to active duty.”

“And what if Voldemort gains even more ground in that time?” Daniel interjected, looking in frustration at Landry as he stood up, barely able to contain his rage at being kept out of something this personal. “What if he tries to launch an attack? What if he forms even more alliances with the other Goa’uld still out there; having him work with Hestia’s bad enough, but if he finds any _more_ allies-”

“All SG teams sent out on missions will be given explicit instructions to keep an eye out for Voldemort and his forces, along with specific orders not to engage the enemy unless it becomes clearly necessary for them to do so,” Landry interjected, avoiding his archaeologist’s attempts to continue his ‘rant’. He knew that Doctor Jackson had his reasons for being so hostile, of course- given that they were dealing with the man who had killed his parents and been responsible for the deaths of so many other people who had been dear to him in his childhood, it was only natural that he should have a personal investment in this situation. “We are not abandoning the search for Lord Voldemort, Doctor Jackson; we simply feel that it is for the best that you and Colonel Mitchell spend a bit more time recuperating before you return to the field, particularly given the current high stakes that we face at the present moment.”

For a moment Daniel simply stared back at General Landry, a grim expression on his face as he tried to bring his emotions under control- he may be tapping back into his ‘inner Harry’, but if he allowed his emotions full reign like he had back then, all he’d get would be even more trouble than he had already-, before he finally nodded in resignation.

“ _Fine_ ,” he said simply, before sitting back down in his chair.

“Uh… anything needing doing that we haven’t been able to do earlier?” Mitchell asked, raising a hand inquiringly as he looked at Landry.

“Well…” Landry said, trying to make it clear that he’d not wanted to do this as he turned to look at Daniel. “On the topic of this current situation, Doctor Jackson, I apologise for not mentioning this earlier, but…”

He sighed apologetically. “The IOA have requested an interview with you.”

“What?” Daniel said, looking at Landry in confusion. “But why… oh,” he continued, halting his speech as the implications of recent events hit him. “They want to talk about the whole ‘I was born with a different name and I’ve been hiding some special abilities that I possess for years’ thing, right?”

“Correct,” Landry replied, nodding apologetically at the archaeologist.

“Sorry, Harry,” Fred said from the other side of the table, “but once it was confirmed that you weren’t a nutter and that we could actually _do_ something about this whole situation, that Wooly-”

“ _Woolsey_ ,” George corrected his brother.

“Right, sorry… that _Woolsey_ bloke insisted on you attending an interview-.”

“Wherein you are apparently meant to talk to him and a bunch of other sods-”

“About why you ditched the world you grew up in to become an archaeologist-”

“And why you haven’t been using your magic before now.”

“Ah,” Daniel said simply, taking care to keep his tone neutral as he looked back at Landry. “When do the IOA want this meeting to take place, General?”

“Well,” Landry continued, managing to make his sympathy for the former Boy-Who-Lived clear even as he issued his orders, “the representatives will be here tomorrow to talk with you, but in the meantime they’ve… requested that you remain on the base-”

“They’re worried I’ll try and get away from them, right?” Daniel asked, shaking his head slightly as the corners of his mouth turned up in a slight smile. “It’s almost ridiculous, really; after all the effort I went to in order to get these guys here todeal with the current crisis, they really think I’d run out on the SGC _now_?”

“Eh… any chance ‘Arry can ‘ave some people at that meeting wi’ ‘im?” Hagrid asked, looking uncertainly at Landry as he spoke. “Jus’… if they wan’ a character witness or summin’ like that, I’ve known ‘Arry ‘ere since he first learnt he was a wizard in the first place- told ‘im ‘bout it meself, as a matter o’ fact-, an’, well, if they’re worried ‘bout him keepin’ summin’ ‘bout his past quiet ‘cause ‘e was a berk back then or summin’…”

For a moment, as he looked at the uncomfortable face of the man who’d first introduced him to the wizarding world and shown him a life that went beyond being beaten and abused by the Dursleys for nothing more than the fact that he existed, Daniel felt like crying.

Even after leaving some of the closest friends he’d ever had in the manner that he’d left them in, with only a brief conversation with Hermione to provide any kind of explanation for all those that he was leaving behind, to know that his old friends still cared about him enough to do something like that (Hagrid was never a brilliant public speaker when it came to anything not relating to magical creatures)…

It was touching, really.

“Well…” Landry said after a moment’s pause, his eyes fixed on Hagrid in a reflective manner, “… I’m sorry, Mr Hagrid, but I don’t think that will be possible; the IOA prefer to conduct one-on-one interviews with their subjects in this kind of situation.”

“Oh,” Hagrid said, looking slightly awkward at the general’s comment.

“On the topic of things that need doing,” Landry continued, as he looked around at the rest of the table, “Teal’c, your presence was requested by Bra’tac at Dakara; the Jaffa are beginning the conferences on whether or not to make the Free Jaffa Nation a democracy, and Bra’tac feels that your vote would go a long way towards helping to say the decision in the progressive faction’s favour.”

“Thank you for informing me of this, General Landry,” Teal’c said, nodding gratefully at the general as he stood up. “May I begin to make preparations now?”

“Feel free,” Landry said, nodding at the Jaffa as he looked around at the rest of the team. “And on that topic, dismissed; I’ll contact you all if your presence is required.

After Landry had left the room, there was a momentary silence as the group of wizards and soldiers looked around at each other until Hagrid broke the silence.

“Uh… sorry if I embarrassed yer there, ‘Arry,” the half-giant said as he looked apologetically at his old friend. “Jus’ thought ye’d ‘ppreciate a friendly face there; didn’t think it’d be ‘gainst any rules this lot had or stuff like that…”

“Don’t worry about it, Hagrid,” Daniel said, leaning over to smile slightly at his old friend. “You couldn’t have known, and the offer’s appreciated if nothing else; it’s…”

He paused for a moment, uncertain how to express what he wanted to say, before he finally finished. “Well… it’s good to know there aren’t any grudges.”

“What; just ‘cause yer left like that?” Hagrid said, shaking his head as he thumped Daniel reassuringly on the back (Daniel only just managed to regain his balance; Hagrid evidently still hadn’t quite managed to remember to adjust his strength at times). “‘Arry, we all missed yer, but yeh chose ter make yer own way in life; it’s a great thing yer did there, an’ I’m sure we’re all proud of yer fer takin’ that kind o’ chance.”

“Exactly,” Lupin added, smiling slightly over at the archaeologist. “You’ve forged your own path, Harry; even if it isn’t quite what any of us were expecting, your parents would be proud of you for that if nothing else.”

“Thanks…” Daniel replied, smiling slightly over at his old teacher before he glanced at his watch, sighing slightly as he did so. “Well, I think I’ll just head off to the lab; I’ve got a couple of translations that I’ve been meaning to do, and, since I can’t head back to my apartment, this seems like as good an opportunity as any to get them done.”

“Plus it gives you somewhere to be where you can be sure your presence will be recorded, huh?” Mitchell added, smiling over at his friend even as he restrained a slight wince; his body clearly still hadn’t fully recovered from the _Sectumsempra_ curse Malfoy had used against him earlier.

“There’s that,” Daniel admitted, nodding slightly at his new commander before he shrugged slightly. “Anyway, I’d better get on with this; the sooner I get those things finished, the sooner I can start preparing for the IOA.”

“That bad, huh?” Tonks asked, raising an eyebrow as she looked at him.

“You remember that time I was called before the Wizengamot?” Daniel asked, looking over at his wizarding friends. “Think what Dumbledore and I told you about the questions I was asked at that point, and you’re pretty much there.”

Before anyone could ask him for further details, Daniel had turned around and begun to walk off towards his office, leaving his friends and teammates standing in the corridor before Mitchell broke the silence.

* * *

  
“Uh… sorry if this just comes under the heading of ‘more dumb questions from the non-magical guys’, but is a Wizengamot like… a government or something?” the lieutenant colonel asked, looking uncertainly over at the wizards, his curiosity aroused by Daniel’s last statement.

“And if it is, what had Daniel done to merit being called in front of it when he was still in school?” Sam added, joining Mitchell in looking at the wizards in a critical manner, Teal’c joining them in the glare as Daniel’s newer allies stared at Harry’s older ones. “If it’s possible for him to have to deal with problems from your government as well as ours, I think I’d prefer to know the situation sooner rather than later.”

“Oh, no worries on that front- everyone involved in that farce of a trial got kicked out of office long ago-, but actually that’s kind of an amusing story when you look back at it; it wasn’t that funny at the _time_ , of course, but when you know how it all turned out, there’s a certain humorous touch about it all,” Fred said, a smile on his face as he looked at SG-1. “Did Harry tell you about the events of his fifth year after Voldemort came back from the dead the first time around?”

“Uh… that would be the time when the head of your government basically decided to deal with the problem of a powerful homicidal maniac walking about again by sticking his fingers in his ears and humming a lot?” Mitchell asked, a slight expression of loathing on his face as he remembered what Daniel had told them about that point in his life (Which, he had to admit, hadn’t been that much; all of SG-1 had quickly gathered that his fifth year at Hogwarts was one of the times Daniel liked thinking about least, and decided to respect his desire not to talk about it).

“Exactly,” Lupin said, looking around briefly before he turned around and entered a nearby empty laboratory, followed closely by the rest of the group, Hagrid shutting the door behind him as the last one to enter the room. “Anyway, at one point during the summer, Delores Umbridge, the Senior Under-Secretary to the Minister of Magic- a truly unpleasant woman, really; she issued several legislations against everything from werewolves to centaurs for no real reason other than that she could-, decided to try and deal with Harry’s ‘lies’ by sending a couple of dementors after him; she was worried about her continued status in the Ministry if Harry managed to convince people that he was telling the truth, so she was, as you can guess, pretty determined to stop him from telling anybody else about Voldemort’s resurrection even if she didn’t believe in it herself-”

“I apologise for interrupting,” Teal’c interjected, looking inquiringly at Lupin, “but what are these ‘dementors’ that you mentioned earlier?”

“Some of the worst things the magical world’s ever seen,” Lupin replied simply. “They look somewhat like tall men in cloaks, but wherever they go, they give off an aura of fear and darkness that leaves anyone in their presence feeling as though they will never be happy again.”

“What; you mean they make you miserable just by _being_ there?” Mitchell asked, raising a surprised eyebrow. “Talk about sucking the life out of a room…”

“Yer ‘aven’t ‘eard the worst bits ‘bout ‘em yet, Cameron,” Hagrid said, looking grimly over at his new friend. “If a dementor gets near enough ter yer, it can make yer relive all the worst days of yer life as though yeh were really there; I got stuck in a prison that was guarded by dementors when I was framed once, and they made meh relive everything from my expulson ter my dad’s death…”

“Oh my God…” Sam whispered, her eyes widening in shock as a horrible thought occurred to her. “Did… did Daniel…?”

“Relive the memory of his parents dying whenever he was near them?” Lupin finished for her, nodding regretfully at the woman before him. “He did, Colonel Carter; it caused him to faint when he first encountered them when he was thirteen.”

“ _Damn_ …” Mitchell said, shaking his head slightly at that news. “That’s _gotta_ suck…”

“You haven’t heard the worst bit about what they can do to you,” Lupin put in grimly. “When they wish to use their last and most terrible weapon, they remove their hoods, and… well, we assume there’s some kind of mouth under there, but nobody who’s witnessed it is in a position to tell us, because they then… suck out your soul.”

Mitchell’s eyes widened in horror.

“They _what_?” he said, staring in shock at the werewolf.

“It’s worse than you think,” Lupin said, his expression grim as he looked at the man who’d only recently learned about the world that he himself had been a part of all his life. “Losing your soul alone wouldn’t kill you- you can still live without it so long as your heart and your mind are intact-, but you’d be left simply… existing, for lack of a better term; not really experiencing life, or even responding much to anything. It’s never even been sure that they’re even aware of anything happening around them; once their souls are gone, they just seen to… stop, quite frankly.”

“Oh my God…” Sam whispered in shock, before her eyes suddenly narrowed in rage. “And somebody sent something like _that_ after a _kid_?”

“Umbitch was always a sadistic piece of work,” George said, shrugging casually at the memory. “When she was made Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts- popular theory is that the Minister at the time thought that Dumbledore was trying to set up an army in Hogwarts so they put someone in who _wouldn’t_ teach the kids how to defend themselves-, she actually made Harry use this one quill that actually wrote what he was writing into the back of his own _hand_ when she was making him write _I must not tell lies_.”

Sam felt almost ill.

“She made him write that into the back of his _hand_?” she repeated, staring at George in horror. “And you think that’s _funny_?”

“When you consider that Harry ended up being revealed as right when Voldemort actually showed up inside the Ministry of Magic itself, and Umbridge got sent to Azkaban- now dementor-free after some of the reforms begun by Hermione’s predecessor- for cruelty to half-bloods, muggle-borns and every other kind of not-quite-totally-pureblood-magical-life-form-under-the-sun after Voldemort bought it?” Fred replied, smiling slightly at Sam. “Yeah; I’d call it funny.”

Mitchell nodded in agreement.

“Gotta admit, I’d certainly think _that_ was amusing after what she did,” he said, allowing himself a slight smile before he glanced over at Sam. “Looks like Jackson hasn’t changed much since then in _that_ regard at least, huh?”

“Oh, you mean in that he still manages to annoy government employees?” Sam replied, smiling slightly back at Mitchell as she shook her head in reflection. “He certainly manages that...”

“Hold on; Harry’s managed to hack off the _American_ government as well?” Fred said, smiling slightly as he looked at the attractive astrophysicist with a broad grin. “What did he do?”

“Well, he _did_ once defy the orders of this group called the NID- the National Intelligence Department, if you’re interested in knowing what it stands for- by letting a group of aliens called the Tollan go free when they wanted us to keep them until they agreed to share their technology with us,” Sam replied, smiling slightly at the memory before she noticed the suddenly apprehensive expressions on the faces of the wizards and realised what they were thinking. “Don’t worry, the NID’s cleaned up a lot since those days; nobody’s going to try and _force_ you to work here if you don’t want to. We stopped that kind of agent from trying to dissect Teal’c’s symbiote back when he first arrived here, and we’ve made it our policy since then to never take anything from another civilisation that they weren’t willing to share with us openly.”

“Always good to be reassured on _that_ point…” Tonks said, shaking her head slightly at old memories before she turned her attention back to the people before her. “So, in other words, Harry’s kept up his old habit of getting in the faces of the current government if he disagrees with their policies?”

“Indeed,” Teal’c said simply.

“Good to know,” Lupin said, smiling slightly at the rest of SG-1 before he glanced at his watch and raised his eyebrows slightly. “Talking of things that would be good to know, where do we sleep; it’s getting late.”

“Oh, _that_ little detail, right,” Mitchell said, looking slightly embarrassed as he smiled at the wizards. “No worries; T. and I’ll fix you up in a couple of the guest rooms, OK? We’ve got some rooms on base we use for providing any offworld guests with somewhere to stay when they’re on Earth; you guys can probably use a few of them until we can sort out something more permanent.”


	25. Daniel Jackson VS the IOA

As Daniel sat in the briefing room opposite the IOA representatives- the rest of his two teams were taking advantage of the stand-down to attend to other business; Sam was talking about some of the practical applications for magic with his old friends while Teal’c attended a conference being held on Dakara regarding the possible transition to democracy, leaving Mitchell to take advantage of the team’s temporary stand-down period to visit an old friend who’d been injured during a training accident a few years back-, he was once again reminded of just why he hated bureaucracy so much. It might help keep the day-to-day operations involved in running countries, but it also made everything that much more complicated by giving some people a possible motive to _not_ do the right thing as it might not benefit their long-term personal goals and ambitions. If there was one thing about leaving the wizarding world that he hadn’t missed, it was having to try and clean up the Ministry of Magic after everything that Scrimogeur, Fudge and Umbridge had done to it; Hermione had done an excellent job with fairly limited political experience, he wasn’t denying that, but he strongly doubted he could have had the patience to accomplish anything like what she had achieved.

In the end, that was probably one of the reasons he’d gone into archaeology after he’d first arrived in America and applied for a university, beyond just finding Egyptian history interesting; politics might still be an issue when it came to getting permission to dig in some parts of the world, but at least nobody would refuse him the right to excavate anything because they had their own agenda to accomplish by not letting him look around the sites in question. It had almost been refreshing to know that, if he was refused the right to excavate certain locations, it would have only been because the people involved had a legitimate reason for their objection rather than just wanting to protect themselves for some reason or another.

“Doctor Jackson,” Woolsey said, nodding briefly at the archaeologist as he indicated the seat before the assorted IOA representatives, “a pleasure to see you again; please, take a seat.”

Given that the last time the two men had met alone for any length of time had been during that whole incident with Khalek that had nearly resulted in a highly evolved being with access to powers that had in some ways made Daniel’s magic look useless- he could do most of Khalek’s tricks but he had always required a wand to accomplish them, even if he could still use it to do some things that Khalek couldn’t-, Daniel wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about having to talk with this man in particular (The other two members of the IOA had done even less to endear themselves to him; at least Woolsey actually _apologised_ for his actions after Khalek had nearly escaped, even if he’d have done better to simply have Khalek killed in the first place).

He’d always particularly hated this part of work in the SGC- every time he had been called upon for a hearing by the likes of Kinsey, Simmons or Woolsey he felt like he was back in the Wizengamot courtroom on trial for trying to save his and Dudley’s lives; forced to justify doing the wrong thing for the right reasons to a group of people who’d happily see him hang if it meant they got what they wanted-, but at the same time he knew that it was necessary if he was ever going to convince the IOA to allow him to continue the search for Voldemort. He _couldn’t_ be confined to the SGC for long; the more time he spent here, the more time Voldemort had to establish himself as a figure of authority in the galaxy, and the more chances he had to run into a Prior and possibly get convinced to follow Origin…

Even if Daniel felt fairly certain that the odds of Voldemort ever following the Ori were low, it was still possible that he might _pretend_ to convert to Origin to try and gain the extra powers he’d possess as a Prior. There was really no way of knowing if the Ori’s followers could determine whether somebody genuinely believed in Origin or just believed in following the Ori’s will, and he had no way of knowing whether the Priors were any better at determining whether someone was telling the truth. If they simply made someone a Prior based on their _actions_ , if it meant gaining power Daniel had little doubt Voldemort could enforce the Ori’s rule for as long as he had to; he certainly wouldn’t find it that difficult to torture people simply for not apparently believing in a religion he himself might not totally accept.

He couldn’t let that happen; Voldemort had been dangerous enough when he was just a wizard, and now he possessed access to the genetic knowledge and technology of the Goa’uld. If he managed to gain access to the powers of a Prior, there was no telling whathe’d be capable of; he _had_ to be found as soon as possible.

Forty-five minutes later, after going over Daniel’s last assortment of mission reports since officially rejoining SG-1, along with some of the other offworld incidents that had taken place since the Ori had first sent their forces to Earth, the IOA representatives finally got around to the matter that he’d been expecting since this meeting began.

“Doctor Jackson,” Woolsey said, looking solemnly at Daniel, “you are, of course, aware of why we have called you here.”

“Fred and George gave me the essential details, yes,” Daniel replied; if he was going to be questioned, he was going to give them what they asked for.

“Then you understand our concerns about our recent… discoveries?” Shen put in, raising an eyebrow as she sat forward to look critically at the archaeologist.

“I don’t,” Daniel replied, staring pointedly at her.

“You don’t?” the English ambassador- his name was Hendricks, if Daniel recalled correctly- asked, looking inquiringly at him.

“No,” Daniel replied, as he looked back at the man. “I may have lied about the name I was born with and the life I lived prior to when I was seventeen years old, but the degrees I obtained and the academic research and discoveries I have made since then are all legitimately my own. I have never once claimed another’s discoveries for my own, I have never claimed to have skills I did not legitimately earn a degree for, and I have never deceived anyone about my motivations or reasons for staying with the Stargate program. There is no reason for any concern that you might possess about my ability to do the job that I was hired for based simply on the fact that I have omitted some details about my past life prior to beginning college; the degrees that I was hired for were earned legitimately, I assure you.”

“True,” Hendricks admitted, looking somewhat critically at the archaeologist. “However, you _did_ fail to let us know that you were not a naturally born American citizen; do you even possess the appropriate citizenship to work here?”

“That was one of the first things I applied for when I arrived in America,” Daniel replied, forcing himself not to lose his temper; as much as he had often been tempted to do so, he hadn’t lost his temper with authority figures who were allegedly ‘on his side’- even if he disagreed with their methods and motives for taking action against the bad guys on more than one occasion- since he was Harry, and he wasn’t about to start breaking that ‘streak’ now. “I assure you, I am legally an American citizen in every manner other than the country of my birth; I acquired official citizenship before I even started attending university in Chicago and UCLA, and I’ve kept up with all the necessary requirements such as taxes ever since.”

“I see,” Woolsey said simply, consulting the reports before him briefly before he looked back at the man before him. “On the topic of moving to America, why does your file fail to include any information about your change of name or nationality?”

Daniel simply shrugged. “The wizarding world generally operates under a strict Statute of Secrecy, Mr Woolsey; when I was in school, I was forbidden to tell anyone about my wizarding status unless they were already aware of it to preserve the secrecy of the wizarding world,” he said by way of explanation. “It would have attracted too much attention to my past if I had simply left the seven or so years I spent in the wizarding world the blank that they were on my original paperwork. Creating a new background seemed the most prudent way to avoid drawing attention to that period of my life, and hence my involvement in the wizarding world, while helping to ensure that I wouldn’t be discovered by anyone looking for me.”

“On the topic of people looking for you, the fact that you had angered a ruthless cult like these ‘Death Eaters’ wasn’t something you felt we should be aware of?” Hendricks put in, looking critically at the linguist.

“At the time I came here, as far as I knew the Death Eaters had disbanded due to the lack of any coherent leadership following Voldemort’s demise; I was mainly eager to leave the wizarding world to avoid becoming a symbol or figurehead of some kind,” Daniel replied. “Since the Death Eaters couldn’t organise together as a group after their leader was killed, I saw no need to worry about them any more. Besides, by the time I became a member of SG-1 they had left me alone for the last decade or so; I concluded that, if they hadn’t come after me by that point, there was no reason to assume that they were going to try and find me any time soon, so there was no reason to mention it.”

“A fair point,” Woolsey admitted, nodding briefly at the man before him before his expression became more critical once again. “And how do you defend the fact that that you have deprived the SGC of the use of a potentially valuable asset for the duration of your time as a member of SG-1?”

Daniel blinked.

“Excuse me?” he said, looking in confusion at Woolsey.

“Your ability to use magic,” Woolsey clarified, looking pointedly at Daniel as he spoke. “Can you honestly deny that you have possessed the ability to perform magic since the day you were approached by Catherine Langford regarding your aid in translating the capstone?”

“I can’t,” Daniel replied, choosing his words carefully as he looked pointedly at Woolsey. “However, saying that I deprived the SGC of an asset is not strictly speaking an accurate description of my actions; ‘deprived’ would imply that the SGC had been expecting me to bring by magical abilities to my job, and I was hired purely for my archaeological expertise.”

“And you never felt that the war against the Goa’uld might have meant that your use of magic could have provided us with a vital edge in the conflict at some point?” Shen countered, looking critically at the archaeologist.

“To what end?” Daniel replied, turning to look at her. “When I left the wizarding world I stopped carrying my wand about with me on a regular basis, and I never really bothered to practice how to use my magic without it, so it’s hardly like I was ever in a position to use offensive measures against the Goa’uld whenever we encountered them off-world. Even when we were captured, we always managed to escape or resolve the crisis before we ran out of time or faced execution; I’d always promised myself that I’d resort to magic if it was the last resort, but since we never reached a point where things were desperate enough I never saw the need to use it.”

“Would you care to explain why you didn’t start taking your… wand… with you

“SG-1’s primary goal is peaceful first contact, not assassination missions,” Daniel pointed out, looking coldly at Hendricks as he spoke. “I didn’t join the team to get into fights, but to translate and provide cultural insight; I wasn’t going to start carrying around extra weapons that I might not even need, particularly given how difficult it would have been to keep the wand somewhere safe and secret. Besides, when I first learned about the existence of other Goa’uld besides Ra, at the time I had no means of testing the effectiveness of spells against their technology; powerful magic might tend to ‘short-circuit’ technology on Earth if there’s a large enough amount of it in one place, but alien technology didn’t exactly work the same way as what we’ve developed here. For all I knew, I would have accomplished nothing by attempting to use spells in combat- their personal shields might have protected from anything I tried to use- and may have even made myself a more interesting target as a host by demonstrating abilities that no other human they’d encountered possessed.”

“‘No other human they had encountered’?” Shen repeated, continuing to look critically at him. “Do you mean that there are no other… wizards… on the planets that you have visited since you first became a member of the Stargate program?”

Daniel shook his head.

“I have no way of knowing for certain if there are any wizards on other planets, but given the Goa’uld’s desire for the most powerful hosts available to them, I find it unlikely that there are,” he replied. “If there were wizards on other worlds, it would only be logical for the Goa’uld to use them as hosts; given that we have never encountered a Goa’uld whose powers originated from anything other than technological means, it can only mean that there aren’t any wizards on other planets for them to use in the first place.”

“I… see,” Shen replied, nodding briefly at the man before her before her eyes returned to the report before her for a moment before looking back up at him. “And you now wish us to permit your attempt to track down this ‘Voldemort’ person, despite the continued threat posed by the Priors?”

“I’m not suggesting that we cease our efforts to neutralise the danger posed by the Priors; I just feel that the threat posed by Voldemort needs to be eliminated as soon as possible,” Daniel countered, looking pointedly at the Chinese woman as he spoke. “He created a fairly significant body count back when he was active the first time around, and then he was just a normal human being restricting himself to a small part of the world; now he has access to the genetic knowledge of the Goa’uld his spirit has acquired as a host, to say nothing of what technological or historical secrets he might manage to find now that he has access to the Stargate network. Also, we cannot rule out the danger of Voldemort making contact with a Prior; while I find it unlikely that he would genuinely convert to Origin, if he at least manages to make the Priors _think_ that he has, it’s possible that he’ll manage to trick them to convert him into a Prior himself. If he acquires the powers of a Prior on top of his own abilities as a wizard, there’s no way to know what he might be capable of; his natural magical abilities were significantly above the norm for wizards already, but if the Prior’s powers enhance his magic as well as everything else he could present a very serious threat.”

“Possibly,” Woolsey said, nodding slightly before he looked pointedly at Daniel. “Could he not be aware of that possibility already via your ‘link’ to him? You have mentioned that you and he are able to read each other’s minds…”

“I can read _his_ mind; he feels incredible pain whenever he tries to enter mine,” Daniel replied, returning Woolsey’s look with his own. “As I made clear in my report, Voldemort cannot possess me; his corrupted soul renders him extremely vulnerable to any intense emotion I feel or recall while he is trying to use me.”

“I… see,” Woolsey said, his tone clearly portraying his scepticism about Daniel’s reasoning even as he accepted the final results before he continued to study his report. “However, while I do not deny that what information you and your associates have provided us with suggests that this ‘Voldemort’ could indeed be dangerous under the right circumstances, are you certain that your… personal feelings… on this matter are not clouding your judgement?”

Daniel blinked.

“Excuse me?” he repeated.

“As I understand it, this ‘Lord Voldemort’ killed your parents when you were a child and subsequently went to cause the death of at least two of your schoolfriends, your godfather, your headmaster- who also served as your mentor figure-, and your fiancé, all within your teenage years,” Woolsey said, looking in an evaluating manner at Daniel as he spoke. “Can you honestly inform me that any confrontation with him is not significantly personal for you?”

“Naturally,” Daniel replied, looking critically at him. “Just as it was personal whenever I was forced to confront Apophis, Amaunet, Osiris or Anubis. In case you’ve forgotten, Apophis and Anubis both, in their own way, did just as much damage to my life as Voldemort did, and Osiris and Amaunet both used the bodies of women I… cared for… as hosts. In all that time, the only occasion where I was ever accused of having a personal interest in the struggle was when Colonel Simmons attempted to claim that I was sympathetic towards the Goa’uld, and given that he was later revealed to be actually working with one himself it was fairly obvious that his own opinion on that matter was questionable.”

“Your point being?” Woolsey asked, looking inquiringly at the archaeologist.

“My point,” Daniel replied, staring directly at the man before him, “is that Voldemort’s return is hardly the first occasion since I became a member of SG-1 where I have been in a position where I face an enemy who has taken action against me personally, and I have never before allowed my personal feelings to get in the way of my judgement when dealing with such opponents on previous occasions. I am not suggesting that the SGC go after Voldemort solely because he killed people close to me when I was a child; I am suggesting that we go after him because he poses a clear and present threat to the galaxy that will only grow greater unless he is stopped as soon as possible.”

“I see,” Woolsey replied, his tone as frustratingly neutral as ever as he studied the archaeologist silently sitting before him before he spoke once again. “You will, of course, forgive me if I remain somewhat sceptical; Voldemort _did_ have a remarkably profound effect on your life-”

“Egyptian capstones were meant to have a significant impact on his life back when we thought he’d been Daniel Jackson from day one; didn’t stop us putting him in a position where he’d have to deal with _them_ a lot,” a voice suddenly said from behind Daniel.

The archaeologist’s eyes widened.

“ _Jack_?” he said, spinning around to stare incredulously as the head of Homeworld Security walked into the conference room, smiling briefly at the archaeologist before he turned his attention back to the IOA representatives before him.

“Gentlemen,” he said, nodding briefly at them before he continued. “Anyway, just to throw in my own two cents on this particular matter- thought I should drop by after I got the latest report on things here-, I’ve known Daniel for the last decade or so, and I can safely say that, if he says this ‘Voldemort’ sucker’s dangerous, he’s dangerous. I mean, heck, we’ve never doubted him when it comes to translating stuff or coming up with wild theories about who really built the pyramids; why should we doubt him when he says that the guy who killed his parents could be a _really_ serious threat?”

“The personal factor-” Shen began.

“He’s spent years working with the guy who handed his wife over to become essentially some alien sex toy; I think it’s safe to say that Daniel’s made it clear he knows when to make something personal and when to just be professional,” Jack interjected, looking critically at the man before him. “Or are you guys all forgetting who Teal’c was after all the unnecessary fuss some people made back then?”

“Of course not,” Woolsey replied coolly. “We are all well aware of the role Teal’c has played in defending Earth-”

“And, since I’m the guy who brought him to us based on not much more than a hunch and a gut feeling, I’d like to think I’m a pretty reliable judge of character,” Jack said, returning Woolsey’s expression with a cool stare of his own. “Simple question, Woolsey; the last time Daniel told you to do something that you didn’t do, what happened?”

For a moment Woolsey simply looked uncomfortably back at the commander of Homeworld Security, clearly unwilling to actually put into words what had taken place during the situation Jack had described, but eventually he sighed and accepted the general’s point.

“An individual possessing powerful mental abilities nearly mastered the ability to ascend and caused potentially serious damage and injury to the base and personnel before Doctor Jackson and Colonel Mitchell managed to stop him,” he said, his eyes slightly lowered as he spoke.

“Bingo,” Jack said, nodding at the man before him. “And _how_ did Daniel know what that sucker might be capable of?”

“The individual in question was created by Anubis.”

“Again, bingo. Would you say that Daniel’s judgement was affected by his own personal issues with the bad guy in question _that_ time around?”

“Well, no…”

“Precisely!” Jack concluded, clapping his hands together as he looked around at the IOA representatives with a slight smile on his face. “On the contrary, Daniel’s personal experience with Anubis meant that he knew _exactly_ what Caleb-”

“Khalek,” Daniel corrected with a slight smile; after all that had changed and come back over the last few days, it was good to know that Jack, at least, remained consistent.

“Right, Khalek,” Jack said, nodding briefly at Daniel before continuing. “As I was saying, it was Daniel’s _personal_ experience with Anubis that confirmed that let him know just how much of a threat the guy could be if he was given the chance; you ignored him _then_ , and we nearly had the guy Ascending on us before Daniel managed to stop him. Do you _really_ want to make that same kind of mistake again?”

After a moment of silence as Jack and Woolsey stared pointedly at each other, the IOA representative finally sighed and nodded.

“Very well,” he said, as he turned to look back at Daniel. “Doctor Jackson, as soon as you and your team are back to full health, you have permission to continue to search for ‘Voldemort’; however, rest assured that any news we receive of further action on the part of the Ori and their followers will take automatic precedence over this current crisis. We _know_ what the Ori would be capable of if we allow them free reign in this galaxy; Voldemort’s final plans are still uncertain.”

“Fair enough,” Daniel replied as he stood up himself; in all honesty, with the remnants to his old link to Voldemort still intact, he doubted it would take them that long to find his old enemy if he concentrated enough, but there was still a large enough margin for error that he didn’t feel comfortable mentioning that they were going to use it. “I’ll see you around.”

“Well, now that that’s all settled,” Jack said, clapping his hands together as he looked over at Daniel. “Doctor Jackson, if you’d care to join me in my old office; I’d just like to clarify a few things with you before I have to go.”

“Of course,” Daniel replied simply; he had a feeling that his old friend had a lot about recent revelations that he wanted to clear up, so he should most likely begin the conversation as soon as possible.

With that resolution in mind, he turned and headed for General Landry’s currently-empty office, followed closely by Jack, leaving the three IOA representatives to pack up their papers and depart the conference room themselves.


	26. Jack O'Neill, Meet Harry Potter

As soon as Jack had entered the office and closed the door, Daniel swallowed slightly, the better to prepare himself for what he was about to discuss, and then turned around to look at Jack.

“Thanks for the help,” he said at last; when you have no idea what to start talking about, he’d found long ago that the best way to deal with the situation was to start with something general and work their way up from there.

“Eh, I was in the neighbourhood; thought you could use another face in your corner,” Jack replied, a slight smile on his face as he looked at the man he’d once thought was merely a wizard with languages. “So… you’re an actual _wizard_ , huh? How’d that happen?”

“My parents were a witch and a wizard; it generally runs in the family,” Daniel replied with a brief shrug. “There are some rare occasions where wizards and witches have non-magical children, but they’re so rare it doesn’t happen often enough to be an issue.”

“Ah,” Jack said simply, evidently deciding that there was no point in asking further questions on that topic before he assumed a more curious expression and looked inquiringly at his friend. “Know any cool spells?”

“I could turn this desk into a horse with a little time to refresh my memory,” Daniel replied, once again shrugging in a nonchalant manner at his statement; it was kind of unexpected, but after spending so long keeping the truth about himself quiet, it was really rather refreshing being able to be honest about his abilities again. “You have to remember, I haven’t actually _done_ any of this in a while; combat spells are fairly simply once you remember the incantation and know where to aim, but actual transfiguration- turning one thing into something else- or something like that is a _bit_ more difficult, and requires more in-depth thought on my part about what I’m trying to accomplish.”

“Fair enough,” Jack replied, shrugging slightly again before he looked at Daniel pointedly. “So, the reason you never mentioned this whole ‘I’m a wizard’ thing to us _before_ your school enemies showed up to try and conquer the galaxy is…?”

Daniel sighed.

“Because not only did I think that everyone who might want to kill me from that time was either dead or lacked the organisation to track me down, but I was trying to put that part of my life behind me, Jack,” he said, the ‘ _You of all people should understand that_ ’ implication evident in his voice even if he didn’t actually voice it. Even after almost a decade, Charlie’s death prior to the original mission to Abydos was still something that nobody wanted to be responsible for bringing up again, with the sole exception being that brief period when Daniel had been recovering his memories after his Ascension (Now _that_ had been a headache and a half; when he’d started remembering both his real and ‘programmed’ childhoods he’d wondered if he’d suffered from delusions until he’d recalled the moment when he actually had the ‘extra’ memories programmed into him in the first place) and hadn’t known they didn’t talk about it. “I’d always promised myself that I’d use my magic only as a last resort if all other possibilities had been exhausted; whenever I was in a dangerous situation, no matter how bad it became, I was always at least fairly certain that there was either another way out of it or that using magic might only make the situation worse.”

“Worse?” Jack repeated. “We were up against millennia-old aliens with serious god complexes; how could you whipping up a spell or two in a fight make things _worse_?”

“Well… take Honduras, for example,” Daniel said. “When I’d been captured by Rafael and the others after Doctor Lee and I found the Telchak device, I could have tried to escape by apparating- essentially teleporting myself from one location to another with my magic, if you want to know- but I hadn’t practiced it for ages- if you’re not concentrating when you do it you run the risk of leaving part of yourself behind-, I didn’t even know where I might go, and I’d even never officially received my apparation licence anyway-”

“You need a _licence_ to teleport?” Jack repeated, looking almost amused at the idea. “Maybe we should consider issuing something like that…”

“ _Jack_ ,” Daniel said, looking at his friend pointedly before he continued. “Anyway, apart from that example- along with a few other cases where the fact that I hadn’t practised the spells could have meant that trying them could have caused more problems than it solved-, there were also those occasions where we were in a fight on other planets. Even without my wand, I might have been able to use _some_ wandless magic in a fight- I never actually got to that part of the school curriculum, but I’ve preformed it enough on an instinctive basis to at least understand the essential details; I might have been able to shove somebody back as they tried to attack me or something like that-, there would be no guarantee that it would be enough to make a difference. Besides, if somebody had seen me and managed to escape with that information, then the Goa’uld would have known that there was something different about me and become even more interested in gaining access to Earth and the possible hosts that were available there.”

“Ah,” Jack said, nodding slightly in understanding. “So, in a nutshell, you didn’t want to use your powers because you didn’t want to do anything that might make Earth a more attractive prize for the bad guys, huh?”

“As well as not wanting to remind myself of that period of my life unless I had to, of course,” Daniel added; as much as he might have wanted to conceal the truth about his past, now that it was out he wasn’t going to lie about his motives and let anyone create false ideas of why he’d done what he did. “My ability to use magic may have provided me with the first place where I’d ever really felt like I’d belonged- before I came here, of course-, but it had also…”

He sighed, staring up at the office ceiling for a few moments, lost in thought, before he continued. “It… it cost me so much that I didn’t really _want_ to be reminded of that time unless I had to.”

“I can get that; I mean, half your friends end up dead because some loony wizard hears a prophecy that you’re going to beat him before you were even _born_ , and then your fiancé snuffs it barely a couple of _hours_ after you made the step from dating to engaged?” Jack said, looking sympathetically at his old teammate, recalling the information in the reports that General Landry had submitted. “After everything else you’d had to go up against back then, that _really_ had to suck.”

“To say the least,” Daniel replied simply.

After another moment’s silence, Jack looked curiously at his friend.

“What was she like?” he asked.

There was no need to ask what ‘she’ Jack was referring to; Daniel knew exactly who he meant.

_Ginny_ …

For a moment, he thought about not replying- after all, it wouldn’t exactly accomplish anything for him but to stir up old wounds of the memories of those few blissful months when neither of them had known what was coming for them, before the harsh reality of the situation set in again-, but, on the other hand…

Well, it had been so long since he’d even _allowed_ himself to think about Ginny since that dark day all those years ago; maybe it would help if he actually _did_ talk to someone about it.

Plus, of course, there was the fact that Jack was asking him to look at what Ginny had been like when she was alive rather than how he’d coped after her death; maybe being able to reflect on the good times they’d had before everything went south would help him put things in better perspective.

“Ginny was… she was my ideal, really,” he said after a moment’s reflection, sitting down on the edge of Landry’s desk with a saddened expression on his face. “When we first met, she was just my best friend Ron’s little sister who’d had a bit of a celebrity crush on me based on the old tales she’d heard about my defeat of Voldemort when I was only a baby, and could barely even be in the same room as me without…”

He chuckled slightly at the memory; after he and Ginny had started dating, both of them had spent a fair among of time looking back at their past interaction and how ridiculous they’d both been not to realise what was right in front of them. “Well, she alternated between blushing profusely or sticking her elbow in the butter dish, among other things, and could barely say much more to me than the occasional squeak.”

“And that started it?” Jack said, looking curiously at Daniel. “I mean, I get that you’ve changed a lot since then, but that still doesn’t sound like the kind of thing that would get you noticing a girl…”

“No, the relationship only really started when I was sixteen and she was fifteen; before that we were barely even friends, although I _did_ still save her life when she was possessed by a fragment of Voldemort’s soul and used to release a massive serpent on the school in her first year,” Daniel answered allowing himself a slight smile as remembered those few glorious months they’d had together before everything had fallen apart. “A couple of years after that- she was fourteen and I was fifteen at the time-, she’d been encouraged by my friend Hermione- the current Minister of Magic, you know- to try and attract my attention by dating other guys and acting more like her own person and less like a giddy fangirl around me. We spent a bit more time together over the next year or so- she helped me deal with some Voldemort-related issues I had when it seemed like the guy might have been possessing me, as well as both just spending more social time together than we had before- and then one day Ron and I walked in on her making out with her current boyfriend, and I realised… well…”

“You saw her in a whole new light and wanted to pound on the guy for touching her, huh?” Jack said, smiling slightly at his friend. “Tell me about it; same kind of thing happened to me with Sara. She started out as just being the roommate of my previous girlfriend, then we ended up spending a bit more time after the roommate moved away, and…”

He shrugged. “What can I say? One thing led to another, the other thing led to the bedroom, and BAM! There we were.”

“Well, it wasn’t _quite_ like that with Ginny,” Daniel replied with a slight smile; in some ways, it was actually rather encouraging to hear Jack being able to make jokes about his long-failed relationship with his ex-wife. “After she and Dean- the boyfriend Ron and I caught her making out with- had broken up- he was always trying to help her through the door to the common room, things like that; Ginny was a very independent girl-, I’d just come back from a detention while my team were playing a quidditch game- broomstick-based sport, just to let you know-, she and the others came in with the news that they’d won the cup that year despite my absence, she ran at me to give me a hug, and before I knew it, I was kissing her right in the middle of the house common room in full view of her brother and practically everyone else I knew.”

“Hold on; your first kiss with her was in front of your entire _school house_?” Jack said, smiling broadly as he reached over to punch Daniel lightly on the shoulder. “Daniel, you _stud_ , you!”

“Jack…” Daniel sighed, shaking his head slightly as he looked at his old friend with a slightly amused smile, “it’s not _that_ big a deal…”

“After how embarrassed you were when Sha’re laid that whopper on you back on Abydos?” Jack countered, smiling slightly at the archaeologist’s embarrassment; he was just grateful that enough time had passed since Sha’re’s death for him to feel comfortable joking about stuff like that. “I think I’m entitled to enjoy the chance to point out that you weren’t _always_ that shy with the ladies!”

“It took me the better part of a year to get the nerve to even do _that_ , and the previous two years were spent with a stupid crush on a girl who barely even knew I was there the first year and spent the second year sobbing over the death of her boyfriend at the conclusion of the previous year,” Daniel countered, prompting a startled look from Jack; he’d never have expected Daniel to show that much frustration with someone who’d suffered that kind of loss.

“Look,” he said, raising a hand to reassure his friend that he wasn’t being heartless, “it’s not that I didn’t respect her right to grieve, but half the time we spent any time together it seemed like she just wanted to talk to me about her boyfriend’s death; would _you_ want to talk about seeing somebody being murdered right in front of you just because they got captured along with you by accident, especially when you were only fourteen?”

Jack blinked.

“Uh… given that I’ve never been there myself, I can’t really say… but I _do_ get the ‘uncomfortable about talking about somebody being killed in front of you’ thing,” he said, looking at Daniel with an uncertain respect. He’d always thought that Daniel seeing his parents die when he was eight had been hard, but at least, no matter how horrific that would have been, he’d always known that it was an accident; seeing somebody _murdered_ right in front of you, apparently just because they were where they shouldn’t be?

Jack didn’t care if Daniel had been older when that happened than he’d been when he’d allegedly seen his parents die (The fact that the incident apparently hadn’t happened didn’t change the fact that, as far as he’d been able to gather from the files, Daniel still had the _memory_ of seeing his parents get crushed in front of him); seeing someone being murdered was a lot more disturbing than seeing somebody die by accident, particularly if you were a kid at the time.

“So…” he said awkwardly, smiling uncertainly at his friend, “putting aside the issue of why you had trouble with your _previous_ crush, I take it that things turned out better with Ginny after you laid that one on her?”

Allowing himself to briefly recall the good times that the two of them had shared in their relationship prior to her death at Wormtail’s hands, Daniel allowed himself a small smile.

“Well, I _did_ try and cut it short at one point after our headmaster was killed- I thought that she’d be safer if Voldemort didn’t know that I felt that way about her-, but she… persuaded me that she’d still be in danger for being who she was on her own even if she _wasn’t_ my girlfriend, so we decided to continue the relationship as much as we could,” he replied, the smile still on his face as he recalled just how much Ginny had ‘reassured’ him; the bed in Ginny’s room in the Burrow had never been _quite_ the same after what it had endured that particular night…

“After that…” the archaeologist continued, the smile fading slightly from his face as his memories, like they always did, turned back to how the relationship had ended, “well… we had our tough moments- things weren’t exactly comfortable between us after her brother died helping me destroy one of Voldemort’s horcruxes-, but we always managed to get past them, up until…”

“Until she died,” Jack said simply; even if it had been over twenty years since the events Daniel was talking about, he knew that sometimes you were _never_ comfortable talking about some things.

“Yeah…” Daniel confirmed, pain once again briefly taking over his expression as he tightened his fists, his eyes glaring at something only he could see. “All because that _bastard_ of a rat couldn’t get over his old issues…”

Jack blinked.

“You’re blaming him for being afraid?” he said, looking in surprise at Daniel. “I mean, you’re the guy who _understood_ why that Lotan guy was willing to destroy a _planet_ -”

“Lotan’s ship only went to that planet because it was uninhabited at the time it was scanned; it was hardly his fault that we chose it as a home for refugees after his scan was taken,” Daniel pointed out. “Wormtail _knew_ what he was doing was wrong when he told Voldemort where my parents were hiding, he _knew_ that he’d just given away their location to somebody who would happily kill them… and he did it all for _no other reason_ than to save himself, and then went on to try and rape the woman I love because he wanted a ‘substitute’ for my mum; I think I’m entitled to be a _bit_ angry at him.”

Jack wasn’t sure what to say to that; he was so used to Daniel being the one who stayed in control whenever they faced more human adversaries, always being able to see both sides and attempting to negotiate a compromise that would satisfy both sides of the conflict, that to hear him actually being _angry_ at a human was…

He wasn’t sure _how_ he felt about it, to be honest; for the moment, he’d just go with ‘strange’ and leave it at that.

After a moment’s awkward silence, Jack spoke again.

“So,” he said, smiling slightly at his old friend, “in a nutshell, you didn’t want to use magic in the past because you didn’t want to remind yourself of that time and because you could never be sure that you wouldn’t end up making things worse if you showed people what you could do?”

“Essentially, yes,” Daniel replied, nodding in confirmation at his friend.

“Fair enough,” Jack said, still smiling as he glanced at his watch, only for the smile to fade slightly as he looked at the watch. “Well, I better get going; Homeworld Security might not be the most enjoyable job I’ve ever had, but it’s not going to run itself, you know.”

Daniel’s eyes narrowed, a slight smile crossing his own face at this evidence of an earlier theory of his. “Wait a minute… you weren’t just ‘in the neighbourhood’, were you?”

“Well… if you count ‘taking two planes and a jeep to get to the neighbourhood’ as ‘being in the neighbourhood’, than yeah,” Jack replied, nodding in confirmation at his friend. “Hey, we both know what those guys can be like; I figured you’d need _some_ kind of official back-up to make sure you made your point.”

Before Daniel could say anything more, Jack had turned around and walked out of the office, leaving the archaeologist staring silently after him for a moment, lost in thought.

He had to admit, it _had_ been good to think about how things had been between him and Ginny _before_ Wormtail ruined any hope they’d had for a happy life together. Those few brief moments when they’d been able to spend time together without worrying about the need to find a horcrux… the mock quidditch matches they’d played together with her brothers when they could return to the Burrow… their rare dates when they were able to just go to the cinema or out for a meal…

Pushing such thoughts to the side once again- it might have been a nice change to remember what they’d been through, but he had more immediate matters to attend to-, Daniel walked out of the office and headed back to his lab; with SG-1 still officially on stand-down for the next day or so until Mitchell had been given a bit more time to recover, he’d decided to take advantage of the opportunity to attend to a few of the translations that he’d fallen behind on following his return to the wizarding world.


	27. Meeting Bra'tac

A few hours later, having looked over the more urgent translations and subsequently moved on to study some of the more minor linguistic conundrums that the SG teams had encountered recently, Daniel found himself accompanying Sam, Lupin and Hermione to the conference room in response to a call from General Landry, most likely connected to the earlier unscheduled offworld activation that had occurred earlier. As the four of them entered the briefing room, Sam and Daniel were pleasantly surprised to see Bra’tac standing at the window of the conference room, looking at the Stargate with a grim expression on his face as they entered.

“Doctor Jackson, Colonel Carter,” Landry said, nodding briefly at them before he turned to look at the two wizards. “Minister Granger, Mr Lupin, this is Bra’tac, a Jaffa master and an old ally of ours.”

“Oh, like Teal’c?” Hermione asked, looking at Bra’tac with the same eagerly inquiring smile that Daniel had long ago come to identify as her expression when she had the opportunity to learn something new. “Great to meet you; we’ve been hearing some _very_ positive opinions about you since we got here.”

“I am… gratified to hear that,” Bra’tac replied, the old Jaffa master looking briefly embarrassed before he looked inquiringly at the two wizards before him. “Forgive me for appearing impolite, but you two are…?”

“Oh, sorry; this is Remus Lupin and Minister Hermione Granger,” Daniel said, stepping forward with an apologetic look at Bra’tac as he spoke. “They’re old friends of mine from Britain; I knew them several years ago, before I joined the Stargate program, and they’re… currently helping us with a few new problems that have come up.”

“I see…” Bra’tac said, looking uncertainly at the two wizards before his gaze settled on Lupin. “If I might ask, how are the two of you acquainted with Daniel Jackson?”

“Oh, Hermione here went to school with him for a few years, and I was an old friend of his parents; we lost touch with him a few years ago, but we recently made contact again and he invited us over here to help him,” Lupin explained, quickly ascertaining that the man before them had yet to learn about the crisis that had merited Daniel contacting

“It’s a long story, and given that I doubt this is a social visit, it’ll have to wait until later,” Daniel said, looking apologetically at the old Jaffa master. “So… what’s the situation on Dakara?”

“It is… Teal'c,” Bra’tac replied, a slightly uncertain tone in his voice; evidently he was still slightly confused by Daniel’s explanation for the presence of the new arrivals, but had decided to accept it for the moment. “He left last night to consult with one of our allies. He was due back this morning but did not return.”

“Uh… I know I’m new here, but couldn’t he just be late?” Hermione asked, looking uncertainly at the Jaffa master. “I mean, Teal’c didn’t strike me as the kind of man who’d do it on prupose, but things _do_ happen, you know…”

“He missed an important council session,” Bra’tac replied, the tone in his voice making it clear that he didn’t believe Hermione’s suggestion to be accurate for a second. “There have been unusual goings on as of late. I am here because I no longer know who I can trust on Dakara.”

He paused for a moment, evidently wishing to ensure that the rest of the people in the room understood what he was saying, before he continued to speak. “And I'm certain something is gravely wrong.”

As Hermione and Lupin exchanged anxious looks- Hermione might be Lupin’s superior on paper, but she still tended to look to him and some of the other old Order members for advice if she felt it was necessary-, Sam, Daniel and Landry sat down around the table, indicating for Hermione and Lupin to sit down beside Daniel as well, thus positioning them opposite Bra’tac and Sam.

“So… what’s the situation here?” Hermione asked, looking uncertainly at Bra’tac; evidently she still found it at least slightly had to take in the idea that she was currently sitting in the presence of an actual _alien_. “I mean, Ha- _Daniel_ told us about how you and your people used to be slaves to those… Goa’uld things…but we haven’t really had time to go into much detail about what you’ve all been doing with yourselves after they fell apart…”

“That is a simple enough question to answer,” Bra’tac replied, nodding politely at the woman before him. “Since the fall of the System Lords, the Jaffa have taken steps to establish the Free Jaffa Nation, allowing us to live free without the control of the Goa’uld, but the transition has not been easy. Teal’c and myself have attempted to encourage our fellow Jaffa to make the transition from the current council in favour of a democratic structure, but this motion has spawned strong opposition.”

“I know what you mean,” Hermione replied, sighing slightly as she looked up at the ceiling before she looked back at Bra’tac. “I’ve been working on restructuring a society’s leadership myself; it’s taking an almost _ridiculous_ amount of effort working out who in the old regime was actually a good person and how many of them were just there for the money…”

“I… see,” Bra’tac said, nodding slightly at the British Minister, clearly uncertain about what she had said but willing to put it aside for the moment as he turned back to Sam, Daniel and Landry, once again returning to the issue that had brought him to Earth in the first place. “Obviously this motion to dissolve the Council in favor of elected officials has spawned strong opposition. Many who have reaped benefits under the current regime would lose their status upon passage of the vote.”

“Anybody in particular you think would resort to kidnapping and blackmail to influence the situation?” Landry asked, looking inquiringly at the old Jaffa.

“I used to believe in the honor of many who have disappointed me of late,” Bra’tac replied, only the slight hastening of the pace of his voice displaying his anger at the thought of those who had failed him.

“Well,” Daniel added, as he looked over at Landry for confirmation, “we should probably start at Teal'c's last known whereabouts.”

“Let me know if you need additional personnel,” Landry replied, glancing over at Sam as he spoke; with Mitchell currently absent, Sam was SG-1’s current highest-ranking officer, and hence the one who would automatically command the current mission.

“Thank you, sir,” Sam replied, nodding briefly at him before she looked back at Hermione and Lupin. “I assume you two are all right with joining us?”

“The chance to go to _more_ new planets?” Hermione asked, grinning broadly at the general as she stood up from her chair. “What’s _not_ to like about that?”

“‘More’?” Bra’tac asked, looking over at Daniel for an explanation.

“When I said they’re currently helping us with problems, I should have mentioned that the problems literally only _just_ came up; they’ve only been through the Stargate once or twice by this point,” Daniel said by way of explanation, shrugging slightly as Hermione and Lupin stood up and followed Landry out of the conference room to be shown to the changing rooms; unlike last time, when the upcoming fight against wizards meant that it was more practical to allow the wizarding members of the group to wear their own clothing, it had been agreed that any non-wizard-related missions would be carried out with their wizarding members dressed in BDUs like the rest of the SGC.

“I… see,” Bra’tac said, nodding slightly as he continued to look curiously at Daniel. “If I might ask, what _is_ this ‘problem’ in the SGC that requires their assistance?”

“That’s… kind of a long story, Bra’tac,” Sam said, looking apologetically over at the old Jaffa master. “We’ll tell you about it later, but-”

“Of course,” Bra’tac said, nodding in agreement as he stood up. “For the moment, Teal’c’s safety is our priority.”

“Exactly,” Daniel said, nodding in conformation at the old man before he glanced over at Sam. “So, how shall we do this?”

“Well, you, Bra’tac and Remus should probably check out Teal’c’s last known location,” Sam said, before she glanced over at Hermione. “You can accompany me and SG-3 to Chulak- the Jaffa home world; if he found something disturbing about these changes in opinion it’s likely that he decided to go there to investigate it directly.”

“Sounds fine to me,” Hermione said, nodding in acknowledge of her new friend’s decision as she glanced back over at Daniel. “Is there… well, anything I should or shouldn’t do while I’m there?”

“Something their culture won’t approve of, you mean?” Daniel said, shaking his head reassuringly at her. “Don’t worry; just follow Sam’s lead and you’ll be fine.”

“Check,” Hermione said, nodding slightly while allowing herself a small smile at the surprised expression that briefly appeared on Daniel’s face; evidently he still wasn’t entirely used to her greater willingness to allow others to take the lead in some situations after so long working as Minister of Magic.

* * *

  
An hour later, Daniel, Bra’tac and Remus were walking along the surface of an allied planet, Sam and Hermione currently accompanied by SG-3 as they investigated Chulak. With the initial situation having been addressed back on Earth, and the settlement on this planet a fair distance from the Stargate, Daniel had taken the opportunity to fill Bra’tac in on their current situation, reasoning that the Jaffa deserved to know about the addition of another potential danger to the galaxy.

“Incredible…” Bra’tac said, shaking his head as he stared at Daniel, his eyes wide as he studied the archaeologist. “You are saying that you can do by yourself things that the Goa’uld could only ever pretend to be capable of?”

“Well, there are still some things wizards _can’t_ do, of course- bringing back the dead is still impossible after a certain period of time, and immortality’s definitely out of the question-, but in general there are definitely some bonuses to being a wizard that the Goa’uld wouldn’t normally be capable of,” Daniel confirmed, nodding at the old Jaffa master.

“Fascinating…” Bra’tac said, nodding thoughtfully before he assumed a more pointed expression as he looked at Daniel. “And you say that an old… wizard… enemy of yours has returned from the grave to seek his vengeance by combining himself with a Goa’uld?”

“Pretty much,” Daniel said, nodding once again.

“I see,” Bra’tac said, the group walking in silence for a few moments before he spoke again. “It is… ironic, is it not?”

“That his _old_ enemy returned to life in the form of one of the race that’s now his _current_ enemy?” Lupin asked, smiling slightly over at Bra’tac. “Trust me, you’re not the only one who thought that; when we all heard what Harry had been up to over the last few years that was one of the more amusing topics of discussion.”

“‘One of’?” Daniel repeated, looking curiously at Remus. “What _other_ topics were there?”

“Oh, what kind of places you’ve been to over the years, what kind of alien races you’ve encountered… just the usual kind of thing you’d think when you find out that a friend of yours has been hanging around with aliens for the last few years,” Remus said, a slight smile on his face as they drew up to the camp, Daniel noting the basic tents and open fires around them. After Bra’tac had exchanged brief nods with a guard- the Jaffa master had sent word of their arrival earlier-, the three men made their way to a tent near the centre of the camp.

As they entered the tent via the open wall that served as its ‘door’, Bra’tac nodded slightly at the Jaffa before him, the other figure being an old man with a thin grey beard and a mark on his forehead that Daniel recognised as having been Cronus’s symbol before his demise at the hands of Teal’c’s duplicate. The tent itself was fairly comfortable, with various baskets both inside and outside it that were clearly intended to hold supplies for the tent inhabitents, along with various candles and cushions set up around the interior.

“Bra’tac?” the Jaffa said, looking in surprise at the elderly Jaffa master. “What is the matter?”

“Teal’c has gone missing, U’kin,” Bra’tac replied, his expression grim as he looked at the other Jaffa. “You are, as far as we have been able to establish, the last person to see Teal’c before he vanished; I wished to confirm if he was here?”

U’kin shook his head apologetically. “I wish I could be of more help, Bra'tac, but Teal'c left last night barely an hour after arriving.”

“Did he say where he was going?” Daniel asked, looking hopefully at the Jaffa, only for U’kin to shake his head.

“He said he was needed back on Dakara,” the Jaffa replied simply, his straightforward tone making it clear that he had nothing else to say on the matter.

“Was anybody with him?” Daniel asked, inwardly cursing at the lack of information that this trip was presenting them with; didn’t they have enough to deal with thanks to Voldemort having gained access to the Stargate network without having to deal with uncooperative Jaffa into the bargain?

“He traveled alone,” U’kin replied, his tone a casual one that gave no impression that he was concerned about the situation. “Please, let me know as you as you have learned what has happened.”

As Lupin glanced over at Daniel and Bra’tac for assistance- he had little real idea what, if anything, was the appropriate action to take in this kind of situation-, Bra’tac took a step towards U’kin, his expression a netral one that Daniel recognised all too well as the expression Bra’tac assumed when he was preparing to attack something.

“What is the matter, Brother?” U’kin asked, looking casually back at Bra’tac, as though he barely cared about the expression on Bra’tac’s face.

“You call yourself a friend,” Bra’tac replied, a smile on his face that put Lupin in mind of some of the expressions he’d felt himself forming during his werewolf period- he never had any control over his werewolf side when he transformed, but he often remembered what had taken place after his transformations were complete-, “yet you speak lies to my face!”

Daniel barely had time to blink before Bra’tac- whose voice had become hostile practically mid-sentence- had grabbed U’kin’s robes in both hand and hauled him off his feet; there were times when he tended to forget just how strong Bra’tac could be, despite his increasingly-advanced age.

“Uh… I know that I’m new here, but is this _really_ necessary?” Lupin said uncertainly as he looked at Bra’tac. “I mean, he answered your questions-”

“He answered them with lies; he is deceiving us,” Bra’tac said, briskly interrupting Lupin before he returned his attention to U'kin. “Where is Teal'c?”

“Bra'tac…” U’kin gasped, looking back at the elderly Jaffa master with fear evident on his face, “what has come over you? I have told you what I know-”

Bra’tac’s hands instantly shifted to grasp U’kin’s throat, prompting a brief grunt of distress as his eyes briefly glanced towards Daniel and Lupin, only to return to Bra’tac as their expressions made it clear that they wouldn’t offer him any assistance.

“I will _not_ ask again,” Bra’tac coldly informed the other man, Lupin and Daniel simply watching as the Jaffa master continued to glare at the Jaffa before him; Lupin evidently assumed that if Daniel was maintaining his distance right now he should do the same.

“He was taken from here…” U’kin replied, his voice weak against the choke hold Bra’tac currently held him in. “I do not know where!”

Bra’tac twisted his grip slightly.

“Ahh!” U’kin gasped, as his neck moved a treacherous few inches in a direction that could never be considered pleasant. “Please!”

After staring silently at the man before him for a moment, Bra’tac released his grip, U’kin tenderly raising his hands to his injured throat as Daniel, Lupin and Bra’tac turned around to leave the tent.

“What was that all about?” Daniel asked as soon as they were outside the camp;

“I believe he speaks the truth,” Bra’tac replied simply. “He does not know where Teal'c is.”

“Uh… correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t he _admit_ that he helped arrange for Teal’c to be kidnapped?” Lupin asked, looking uncertainly at the Jaffa warrior.

“And he shall be dealt with accordingly,” Bra’tac replied simply. “Unfortunately for us, this situation is much worse than I imagined.”

“How?” Daniel asked, stpping his pace to turn and look more directly at Bra’tac.

“U'kin has always been one of the strongest supporters of our cause,” Bra’tac explained. “A Jaffa whose honor I never would have doubted. There is but one possible explanation for his actions. I saw it- in his eyes.”

Daniel’s own eyes widened in realization at the implications of the Jaffa master’s statement.

“He's been brainwashed,” he said; the responding nod from Bra’tac was all the confirmation he needed that his guess had been the correct one.

“Brainwashed?” Lupin asked, looking at Daniel in confusion.

“Essentially it’s a… conventional method of doing what you’d do with _Imperio_ ,” Daniel replied, turning to look at Lupin as they continued to walk towards the Stargate. “It’s a lot more time-consuming, of course, but it’s simultaneously a great deal harder to break; Teal’c was once brainwashed by his old master into believing that he’d never actually betrayed him and Bra’tac had to take him literally up to the point of death in order to get him back to normal.”

“Uh… you had to ‘take him to the point of death’?” Lupin repeated, shifting his head slightly to look at Bra’tac. “What does that mean?”

“You are aware that the Jaffa were once dependent upon a larval Goa’uld symbiote for their survival?” Bra’tac asked as he turned to look at the werewolf, receiving a brief nod in reply before he continued. “In order to reveal to Teal’c his true nature and allegiance after his brainwashing, I forced him to undergo the Rite of M'al Sharran, wherein a Jaffa’s symbiote is removed, thus forcing them to relive their pasts, allowing them to re-trace key moments in their lives and thus re-learn where their true natures and loyalties have led them to. It is a difficult process, but Teal’c accomplished it and successfully completed the ritual, allowing me to restore his symbiote to him and thus restore him to full health.”

“Ah,” Lupin said, nodding slightly in understanding before he glanced back at Daniel. “Teal’c… doesn’t _have_ that… symbiote… any more, does he?”

“No,” Daniel replied grimly.

“So, in other words, if _he’s_ subjected to the same treatment as U’kin apparently was…”

“It shall be far more difficult, if not impossible, to restore him to what he truly is,” Bra’tac confirmed, nodding grimly at Lupin before he turned to look at Daniel. “I apologise for taking you away from your search for your old foe, Daniel Jackson, but-”

“I understand; Teal’c has to come first,” Daniel said, nodding in understanding as he looked over at his friend. “Trust me; I’m not going to abandon him just because _I_ have a problem to deal with at the moment.”

Daniel could only hope that Voldemort was taking long enough to establish himself out in the galaxy that he wouldn’t come to regret that particular decision…


	28. The Dying Major

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At this point I would just like to clarify that everything you don’t witness taking place here- such as Daniel and Bra’tac’s meeting with Maz’rai or Teal’c’s confrontations with Ba’al (Voldemort’s still getting used to thinking on a galactic scale and hasn’t learned everything about the Jaffa yet- his ‘genetic knowledge’ from the symbiote _is_ a few centuries out of date- so he’s not involved in this particular crisis at all)- happened the same way it did in the original episode, and will be referenced as needed

Daniel had to give this for the SGC; he might become frustrated that they had to answer to the IOA these days, but he couldn’t deny that they got things done a lot faster than the wizarding government had once done. While he acknowledged that his professional reputation had more of an impact here than his fame had back then- coupled with the obvious fact that the government didn’t ‘need’ to ignore him to look good for the general public as the Stargate program’s existence was restricted-, the fact remained that, for all their faults, the IOA were at least quicker to respond to a more definite threat than the Ministry had been to respond to Voldemort back in the day.

They might spend more time debating about finding someone to blame when things went wrong, but at least they took more action to make sure things went _right_ …

“I’ve recalled Colonel Carter and SG-3 from Chulak,” General Landry said, breaking into Daniel’s train of thought as he turned back to look at the SGC’s current commander. “Do we have any idea how widespread this brainwashing might be?”

“It is not possible to tell,” Bra’tac said regretfully. “But it explains how many alliances have drifted so dramatically over the course of the last three weeks.”

“For all we know, half the High Council may have been compromised,” Daniel continued, looking grimly around the room at the small group of people present; Mitchell was still away doing whatever he was up to while on leave, but Hagrid, Fred, George and Tonks had joined the meeting after they’d been woken up and filled in on what had taken place during the last few hours (As well as Fred and George being warned not to try and give Bra’tac anything until the current crisis was resolved; Harry doubted the Jaffa master would appreciate being temporarily turned into a canary no matter how amusing the twins thought it might be).

“And you think these ‘Goa’uld’ suckers are the ones behind this?” Fred asked, looking curiously back at Daniel.

“Fairly sure, anyway; Voldemort hasn’t been out in the galaxy long enough to get a real feel for the political situation out there, so I don’t think he’s the one responsible,” Daniel said, before he shrugged slightly. “Besides, we’ve all seen people under the Imperius curse; they might be good agents if you want someone to attend to basic tasks or the like, but I don’t see them being able to make eloquent speeches about their actions like what we’ve been hearing from these people.”

“And the people involved have been doing that?” Tonks asked curiously.

“If we are to assume that all who have turned against our cause have done so against their will, that would indeed appear to be the case,” Bra’tac said, nodding in confirmation at Tonks.

“Well… that’s _somethin_ ’, righ’?” Hagrid said, looking over at Daniel. “I mean, if they ain’t doin’ this because _they_ want ter…?”

“The last time we encountered this sort of thing, Teal’c only broke his conditioning by being taken to the point of death, and that was when he had a symbiote we could use to help him recover after he snapped out of it,” Daniel explained, looking solemnly over at the half-giant. “With his symbiote gone now, the chances of us pulling it off again aren’t going to be easy…”

“Do not despair, Daniel Jackson,” Bra’tac said, directing a reassuring gaze at the archaeologist. “That Teal’c overcame such manipulation in the past will hopefully aid him in his efforts to resist its effects on this occasion.”

“Which could actually put his life at greater risk,” General Landry added, looking pointedly over at the Jaffa leader.

Daniel didn’t need to ask what his superior meant by that; if whoever was behind this- even if the evidence suggested that it wasn’t Voldemort; he was fairly certain that the Imperius Curse was generally harder to detect in this kind of situation, given that brainwashing required a long-term effort while the curse was a simple case of ‘point-and-say-it’ when it worked- thought that Teal’c was being too difficult to control, he could very easily decide to kill the Jaffa warrior as being more trouble than he was worth.

“Look, you said that other people had done a rapid change on their original opinions on the situation; isn’t it possible you could get them to break their… conditioning?” Tonks asked, looking uncertainly at the Jaffa master. “I mean, I know it’s a long shot, but right now _anything_ you could do to help right now would be great; we’re operating at a _serious_ disadvantage here…”

For a moment Bra’tac merely sat in silence, evidently lost in thought at the possibilities offered by Tonks’ suggestion, before he nodded resolutely.

“It is as good a strategy as any,” he said at last. “I will first consult the hall of records, and then I must confront those who have been affected.”

Daniel could only hope this paid off; his memories of Teal’c’s state when he’d gone through the Rite they were planning to ‘encourage’ the Jaffa involved in this plot to endure were _not_ pleasant…

* * *

  
As Hermione walked down the corridor towards the hospital room where Mitchell was currently staying, she couldn’t help but wonder why she was doing this.

With Harry- or Daniel; she still wasn’t certain what she should call him, even if he didn’t seem to object to either name; she was just sticking with Harry when she was alone with him for familiarity’s sake- currently visiting this Jaffa councillor with Bra’tac in the hopes of finding more information about what had happened to Teal’c, the rest of the wizarding group had decided to give the SG teams a few more pointers about fighting Death Eaters.

Hermione, however, had decided against the combat training- mainly because she was a little out of practise herself; her magic use the last few years had been in other matters than conflict, ranging from her period as the new Transfiguration teacher after McGonagall’s promotion to Headmistress to her efforts in re-organising the Ministry-, instead deciding to try and drop in on Colonel Mitchell. With what she’d heard about his old friend’s injury- shrapnel to the brain causing an aneurysm; definitely _not_ a pleasant thing to happen to anybody-, she had decided to find out more about the wound in case magic could provide the help that alien technology apparently hadn’t been able to so far.

_That’s not the_ only _reason, though, is it…_? a voice said from the back of her mind.

Hermione pushed that thought off; it had been years since she’d given… _that_ … any thought- trying to rebuild an entire government from practically the ground up didn’t exactly leave room for a social life-, given that she’d never really found the time to commit to _anybody_ after Ron had died, but this was _not_ the time to start thinking about that.

Still… she couldn’t deny, there _was_ something about Colonel Mitchell’s casual humour in the face of danger and upheaval- Harry’s revelation about his real past _had_ essentially turned his world upside-down- that she couldn’t help but find somewhat appealing.

Besides, after spending so long establishing herself in the wizarding world, it was rather refreshing to meet someone who _didn’t_ have any preconceptions about what she was like as a person…

Turning into the room that the hospital staff had told her was the room where Mitchell’s friend was currently residing, Hermione smiled slightly at the sight of Mitchell lying on the bed nearest the door with an Air Force magazine draped over his chest- she was unable to stop herself briefly remembering the times Ron had dozed off reading something while they were dating-, before her eyes shifted to his roommate, who was currently talking to Mitchell about something.

“…point is,” the man was saying, so focused on his friend he was apparently unaware of her arrival, “I know that whatever you're into, it's big ... I mean it's bigger than we ever dreamed of back when we were cadets and we swore that blood oath that we would make it into the Space Programme or die trying…”

Apparently having only just registered Hermione’s presence- not that she could blame him; from what she’d heard about his condition the poor man probably had trouble just focusing on one line of thoughtsometimes-, the man turned to look at her, apparently following Mitchell’s gaze (Hermione briefly felt underdressed in her simple black shirt and loose jeans, but shook that off; why should she _care_ about her appearance?).

“Well, hello there,” the other man said, smiling slightly at her. “Captain Bryce Ferguson- technically, anyway; been out of action for so long it probably doesn’t count any more-; you are?”

“Oh… Hermione Granger,” Hermione said, walking over to shake the man’s hand, smiling back at him before reminding herself that the man before her didn’t actually know what Mitchell did for a living and anything she’d heard earlier could have been nothing but speculation on his part at best. “I’m… well, I’m technically working with Colonel Mitchell here at the moment; I’m temporarily working with him at his… project…”

“You mean with the alien thing, huh?” Ferguson said, smiling slightly at her.

“The… the what?” Hermione asked, after a brief glance at Mitchell- who was urgently waving one hand at her in a ‘no’ gesture- confirmed that the other man was only guessing about the alien thing. “I… look, I _really_ don’t know what you’re talking about…”

“Eh, don’t worry about it; Official Secrets and all that, huh?” Ferguson said, smiling nonchalantly at her before he glanced back over at Mitchell. “Hey, what are you still doing here when there’s a hot bird hanging around?”

“ _What_?” Hermione and Mitchell yelled simultaneously, only to cut themselves off when Ferguson simply smiled at them.

“Joke,” he said simply, before he indicated the door to his room. “Anyway, now that you’re here, maybe you could convince this nut to get out of here and eat something?”

“Ferguson…” Mitchell began.

“Cam,” Ferguson replied, looking solemnly over at his old friend. “Burning yourself out while waiting for me to die isn’t going to help anything. At least _try_ and eat something, OK?”

Hermione hated the resigned tone in the other man’s voice- the concept of someone just… _waiting_ for death seemed so wrong to her after everything she’d done to stop people dying in her lifetime-, but right now there wasn’t anything she could do about that; the best thing she could do was make sure Mitchell did what his friend had asked and tried to eat something. Glancing over at Mitchell, Hermione jerked a thumb over to the door of the room, prompting Mitchell to get up with a slight smile and walk out of the room with her.

“So… what are you doing here?” he asked as they stepped out into the corridor, a sceptical look on his face. “I mean, not that it’s not nice to know _some_ kind of government official likes me- even if it’s not in _my_ government-, but don’t you have… other things… to do?”

“Oh, the rest of my… group… are dealing with that side of things well enough; I haven’t done much fighting since I was younger anyway,” Hermione said, shrugging slightly as she looked at the colonel. “Since I didn’t think I’d contribute much at that end, I thought I’d check up on how things were going here, see if there was anything I could do at this end…”

Noting Mitchell’s quizzical expression, she shrugged. “Well, I studied a bit to become a Healer before I settled into a Ministry career; I thought that I might be able to use something I learned back then to help Ferguson if I got a better idea of what was wrong with him.”

“Oh,” Mitchell said, pausing for a moment before he smiled slightly uncertainly at her. “Thanks; I appreciate it.”

“Everything OK here?” a woman’s voice suddenly asked, prompting Mitchell and Hermione to turn around, the speaker swiftly revealing herself to be a woman about Hermione’s age dressed in a white doctor’s coat and turquiose ‘scrubs’ (Hermione thought that was the expression, anyway; most of the people she knew who had suffered injuries in the last few years had been treated in St Mungo’s), with light brown skin and a slightly weathered-looking face.

“Uh… fine, thanks,” Mitchell confirmed, nodding at the woman.

“I see,” the woman replied- Hermione noted an accent that she thought was Indian in the woman’s voice- before she turned to look at Hermione. “Doctor Kelly; you are?”

“Hermione Granger,” Hermione said, shaking the other woman’s hand. “I’m…”

“She’s a consultant,” Mitchell said, stepping forward slightly to take up the explanations, evidently realising that Hermione wasn’t certain what Doctor Kelly might or might not be aware of (She knew that the staff here were aware of the Stargate Program, but that was about it) and stepping in with a cover story. “We recently ran into some… well, a rather tricky new situation out there, and Miss Granger was brought in because she… has some experience with what we’re dealing with; she heard about Ferguson and came down to get a better idea of what’s wrong with him.”

“Ah,” Doctor Kelly said, nodding slightly at Hermione in understanding- evidently she was used to not knowing the full details of situations involving the Stargate- before turning back to Mitchell. “Well, since we all seem to be here for Mr Ferguson, now’s as good a time as any to tell you this; I got the results back from the CAT scan.”

“And?” Mitchell asked, unable to conceal the apprehension he clearly felt about the news he was about to hear (Hermione almost reached over to take his hand and attempt to offer some kind of comfort before stopping herself; she’d barely known the man for a week, it wasn’t her _place_ to try something like that).

“Well,” Doctor Kelly began, her tone a neutral one that clearly delivered the information without lending any clues as to whether the final result would be positive or negative, “it pretty much confirmed Mr Ferguson's own doctor's findings; the shrapnel originally lodged itself across an intra-cranial artery, and, over the course of the next few years, formed the aneurysm. Given its size and relative position…”

Doctor Kelly paused for a brief moment, clearly wishing there was another answer she could give to Mitchell’s earnest expression, before continuing. “We risk causing more damage if we attack it surgically. Even an inter-vascular approach would likely cause a major rupture.”

“OK,” Mitchell said after a moment’s pause, his voice low as he spoke; Hermione was briefly reminded of Ron’s voice when someone gave him knew that left him feeling ready to cry when he didn’t want to. “So what's the plan?”

“I know you were hoping for better news, Colonel,” Kelly said, looking solemnly at the lieutenant colonel before her. “I'm sorry. I'm afraid ... there are no options. It's only a matter of time.”

Hermione couldn’t help but swear slightly under her breath as Mitchell turned and walked away- his body language making it clear that he wanted to be alone at the moment; she could only imagine what he might have done if he’d been alone already-, only briefly nodding at Kelly to confirm that she wanted some privacy herself before she walked off in another direction; even with her somewhat out-of-date knowledge of magical healing- particularly how it dealt with non-magic-related injuries-, she was fairly sure that there wasn’t anything she could contribute that might help Ferguson either.

The problem with magical medicine was that, more often than not, it was only developed to cope with _magical_ injuries… and, since the wizards had practically never been involved in muggle wars to any significant scale, they’d never developed anything that could treat a wound like this. In some similar cases wzards had been known to deal with the problem by deliberately splinching themselves while apparating- ‘positioning’ themselves so that the only things that went missing were the foreign objects-, but even without the fact that Ferguson wasn’t a wizard himself, the location of the shrapnel meant that any attempt at splinching would have probably taken a not insignificant chunk of his brain away into the bargain.

_Damnit_ … Hermione muttered, making a mental note to get in touch with some of her people at St Mungo’s to work on treatment for that kind of injury in the future (It might be too late for Ferguson, but she could use this as encouragement not to let herself be in this position again); what was the point of her encouraging magic/muggle interaction and cooperation if she couldn’t provide a friend with a treatment for something like _this_ …?

Hermione paused.

_Friend_ …

Had she really just considered Cameron Mitchell a friend?

It wasn’t that she didn’t like him, of course, but after losing Ron, Ginny and Harry in such rapid succession in the last days of the Second War against Voldemort- even if Harry had still been alive she hadn’t actually _spoken_ to him until he’d arrived in her office those few days ago-, she’d stopped herself growing too attached to new people too quickly; normally after this kind of time frame having elapsed since meeting someone she’d still be thinking of them as an ‘acquaintance’ at best.

Thinking of Mitchell as a _friend_ …

It opened up further possibilities along the lines that she’d been thinking earlier… areas that she didn’t entirely _want_ to explore even if-

Any further exploration of that train of thought was cut off when Hermione’s mobile phone- she’d picked one up on the way to the SGC; if she was going to spending more time in the muggle world to tackle this crisis she wanted to be prepared- rang, prompting her to walk down a nearby corridor into an empty room- Mitchell was already returning to Ferguson’s room- and pull it out.

“Yes?” she asked, grateful for the chance to think about something else other than the impending death of a man she’d only met a few minutes ago.

“ _Hermione_ ,” Harry’s voice said at the other end- she still couldn’t quite get used to how he sounded; he’d actually picked up something of an American _accent_ in his time away-, “ _we’ve got something_.”

“What, you mean you found… Murray?” Hermione asked, only just remembering that she was still in a somewhat-public location; the doctor she’d spoken to might know about the Stargate program, but she couldn’t be certain if that applied for everyone here, and she wasn’t certain whether or not Harry was calling her on a secure line (She’d spent too long worrying about owls being intercepted to ever feel comfortable talking with someone long-distance).

“ _Not… entirely_ ,” Harry replied, clearly uncomfortable with the current topic. “ _We confronted one of the people… Murray’s mentor… thought might be involved, and… well, he did what we were afraid of and… he didn’t make it_.”

Even without knowing the full details of what Harry was talking about- she was still learning about Jaffa culture at the moment, and even that was only to a limited degree; she just didn’t have the time in the current situation to ask about them-, Hermione had already gathered the relevant information; the Jaffa they’d gone to question had performed that ‘ritual’ Harry had told her about- something about the Jaffa taking themselves to the point of death to explore the ‘truth’ about themselves-, and he hadn’t survived it.

“ _He was able to give us the name of a location that they’re hopeful will lead us to Murray- either it’s where he is or where he’s been-, but beyond that there’s no way to know how things are going to go from here_ ,” Harry continued, drawing Hermione’s attention away from her reflections and onto the matter at hand. “ _Sam’s putting together a rescue party for when we know, but right now the only thing we can_ really _do is hope for the best and hope that Murray can hold on until we get there_.”

“Right,” Hermione said, nodding in understanding. “I’ll let Mitchell know what’s up; see you soon.”

“ _Sure_ ,” Harry said, before he terminated the call, leaving her standing alone in the hall before she turned to head for Mitchell’s room, only to run into the lieutenant-colonel in question before she reached it.

“Oh… hey,” Mitchell said, nodding briefly at her.

“Hi,” Hermione replied, smiling back at him. “Look, sorry to interrupt, but I just got a call from the SGC; they-”

“Found a clue about where Teal’c’s being kept and are preparing a rescue team to get him out as soon as we know what we’re dealing with, right?” Mitchell finished, looking at her with a brief smile at her incredulity. “Just got off the phone with General Landry; he filled me in on everything.”

“Oh,” Hermione said, before another matter occurred to her. “And… you’re not going?”

“Not yet,” Mitchell replied, shaking his head grimly at her. “I’ve… well, I’m having Sam bring something over that I think might do something for Ferguson- won’t heal him, but might make everyone feel a bit better-; you can leave with her when she gets here.”

Hermione briefly opened her mouth to assure him that she’d be happy to stay, but stopped herself before she could actually say it; in the end, it wasn’t like she had anything practical to contribute at this point, so there was no real _reason_ for her to remain here…

As she accompanied Mitchell back to Ferguson’s room to wait for Carter to get here, she just wished she could ignore the small voice in the back of her mind that told her she _did_ have a reason for sticking around; with the most feared dark wizard for three centuries having come back to life with access to alien technology, this was _not_ the time to be thinking about asking a guy out…


	29. Saving Friends

As Mitchell sat on the bench near the hospital entrance, idly scanning the pamphlet Ferguson had given him earlier- something about how to cope with the knowledge of your imminent death- without ever actually taking any of it in, he tried not to think too much about the presence of the Minister of Magic for the whole of the British wizarding population as she sat beside him, casually perusing a book she’d pulled out of her pocket at some point. At any other time, Mitchell would have been impressed that the book she’d produced could fit so comfortably inside a pocket- the damn thing seemed to be about as thick as the last Matthew Reilly book he’d read, at least-, but right now he was more occupied with the more personal concerns currently dominating his mind.

Specifically, the fact that he’d started thinking of someone Jackson had known since the wizarding equivalent of high school- Hell, according to the stories he’d heard, Jackson practically thought of this woman as the sister he’d never had- and had gone on to become essentially the leader of the entire wizarding community in Britain, as a ‘hottie’…

Actually, he almost wished it was _just_ that; as attractive as the woman before him was physically, it was her _mind_ that really fascinated him. From what Jackson had mentioned in his old explanations about elements of his wizarding past, combined with what they’d learned from his friends after they’d arrived here, the wizarding world’s political system had been a corrupted mess that would have made the Nixon administration at its worst look practically squeaky-clean by comparison, and yet Hermione had taken it upon herself to practically single-handedly rebuild her society’s politics from the ground upwards, and, according to all information, had done a fairly good job of it...

So what the _Hell_ was he- a simple Lieutenant Colonel from the United States, who’d only gotten his dream assignment because somebody had owed him a few favours- doing thinking about having _anything_ beyond friendship with her? It was ridiculous, pointless, and would only result in him making an ass of himself; it would be better to just get over it before he made things awkward or worse.

“Cameron?” a voice said, prompting him to turn and look up at the newly-arrived Sam, a wheeled case behind her as she looked at him.

“That’s it?” Hermione asked, Mitchell simply nodding in response at the other woman as the witch looked at the case that apparently contained the ‘technology’ Mitchell had been so secretive about bringing here. “I was expecting something... bigger, I guess.”

“Miniaturising is a common feature of the advanced technology we’ve found out there; the more advanced a civilisation, the smaller things get,” Sam replied briefly, her voice low as she sat down beside the other two to limit the potential likelihood of somebody overhearing her. “We’ve found the gate address for the mothership where Teal’c’s being held; we’re briefing in an hour.”

“We’ll be there,” Mitchell said, nodding at her with a brief gesture of his head, as though he didn’t trust himself to do more.

“Do you... need some help with this?” Sam asked after a momentary silence, indicating the equipment beside her; Hermione briefly looked as though she was about to ask what it was, but seemingly decided against it.

“No, I got it,” Mitchell said, sitting in silence for a moment before he spoke again, his voice slightly lower. “Does this make me a hypocrite?”

“I told my dad,” Sam said with an uncertain shake of her head.

“He was getting a Tok’ra symbiote,” Mitchell countered.

“A what?” Hermione asked in confusion.

“Basically a benevolent Goa’uld that shares control with the host rather than totally dominating it; we’ll fill you in on the specifics later, and we don’t tend to see them that much anyway,” Mitchell said, before he shook his head in frustration. “Look, this really isn’t the point right now; it’s just... after what happened to _me_ when I used that thing, I was opposed to anyone having anything to _do_ with that technology... but now I’m going out of my way to make use of it.”

“Is showing your friend the truth going to make you feel any better?” Sam asked, leaving Hermione increasingly confused about the current topic of discussion; what had actually happened involving the equipment in the box to make Mitchell so ambiguous about it?

“...to know that I’m not going to be burdened with guilt ... what with the fact that he died because of me,” Mitchell said, his voice drawing Hermione’s attention back to the present.

“But that’s not going to help you, is it?” she said, looking solemnly at her new friend, unsurprised when he simply nodded in response to her statement.

She knew how it felt all too well; just because Ron had died knowing that he was saving her by taking that last curse didn’t mean that she felt any less guilty about his death (She sometimes wondered if it would have been better if she’d been able to attend the funeral rather than it happening while she was still in her coma, but it didn’t make her feel any better; what was done was done, and that was the end of that).

“Sometimes...” she said, taking a deep breath as she tried to think of the best way to say what she was about to say before she continued, “all you can do is try to help _others_ feel better... do what you can to make sure that tomorrow’s better for them than today was... because you know for a fact that there’s absolutely _nothing_ you can do that will make _you_ feel better.”

The brief glances from Sam and Mitchell were all Hermione needed to know that they understood what she was saying; she might have worked to practically rebuild her entire society after she’d lost so many people during her last war, but it still didn’t make up for all the people she’d lost during that conflict in the first place.

“Well,” Mitchell said, standing up and clasping his hands together as he looked at Hermione, “let’s get this over with; we’ve still got a rescue to carry out, and I think Ferguson would appreciate seeing what we’ve got for him sooner rather than later.”

* * *

  
As he walked up to Fergusons’ room, the memory device- now programmed with his recent memories- behind him and Hermione beside him- why the witch had decided to stick around Mitchell wasn’t sure, but he wasn’t complaining-, he glanced uncertainly at Hermione as a brief thought occurred to him.

“Uh... just to check, this isn’t going to be a problem, is it?” he asked, indicating the machine as he looked at her. “I mean, this thing has all of my memories about up until I came here...”

“Which means Ferguson will learn about magic?” Hermione finished for Mitchell, smiling reassuringly at him for a brief moment before the smile faded as she continued talking. “Trust me; even if he wasn’t... in his current condition... at this stage, after everything we’ve done for our world, I think my friends and have all earned a bit of leeway in dealing with our secret.”

“Good,” Mitchell said, smiling briefly at her in gratitude before he turned back to the door before him, opening it to reveal Ferguson lying on the bed reading a magazine.

“Hey,” Mitchell said, nodding at his old friend.

“Hey,” Ferguson replied, smiling briefly back at his visitors. “Are you finally getting the hell out of here?”

“Stuff’s come up back in at work with a current project,” Hermione said, nodding apologetically at him as she pulled the door behind her and Mitchell; they might be about to tell Ferguson the truth, but there was no point giving him too much detail when he was about to receive a more detailed background briefing than anything they could _tell_ him. “We’ll be back later-”

“Don’t bother,” Ferguson said, shaking his head. “I won’t be here later.”

“What?” Hermione said, looking at the captain in disappointment as Mitchell began to open the case, evidently uncomfortable with the recent turn of conversation. “You can’t just give up-”

“I’m not giving up, I’m just... checking out,” Ferguson replied, shrugging nonchalantly at the two before him. “There’s nothing more they can do for me here; why waste everyone’s time?”

“It hasn’t been a waste,” Hermione said, shaking her head as she walked over to sit on the bed beside Ferguson, placing her hand on his as she smiled briefly at him. “It’s been... good to meet you, really; it’s actually been a long time since I interacted with someone just on a social setting, what with my job and all...”

“And... what’s your job?” Ferguson asked, looking curiously at her. “I mean, since I’m dying anyway...”

“I’m a member of a secret government in Britain which keeps an eye on the secret society of magical users that exists in British society,” Hermione replied.

Ferguson blinked.

“Uh... magic?” he repeated, clearly latching on to one part of that sentence to avoid focusing on the implications of everything she’d just said (Not that Hermione could blame him; she’d dropped a lot on him at once, but there were times when she just wanted to give an honest answer when people asked her what she did when she was in the muggle world).

“Wands, spells, potions, the works,” Hermione smiled at him, her expression fading to a more solemn gaze as she looked at him. “And before you ask, I can’t do anything for you either; given the nature of your injury, anything I might try could take a part of your brain out in the process...”

“But, on a more encouraging note, I _am_ able to give you a look at what my life’s been like by the use of this little something I picked up on another planet,” Mitchell added, opening the case to reveal a black rectangular box with a silver centre, a black half-oval on the silver part of the box displaying circular green and blue buttons in a triangular pattern, six smaller curved rectangular buttons framing the top of the oval, and five yellow-illuminated holes on the bottom, various cables stretching out from the holes to terminate with a series of electrode-like devices at their ends.

“We’ve made some modifications since we got our hands on this,” Mitchell continued, as he picked a couple of electrodes out of the box, “but basically, here’s how it works; some of my memories from the last year have been downloaded into this device. Attach these leads to your head and you get to experience some of the things I've gone through.”

“You’re serious?” Ferguson said.

“You wanted to know the truth; I’m going to show it to you,” Mitchell replied, smiling at his friend as he held up the leads. “So, let’s get started, shall we?”

The eager smile Ferguson gave them was all the response Mitchell and Hermione needed, the captain lying back and allowing the electrodes to be placed onto his head, Mitchell subsequently tapping the relevant buttons to activate the machine.

As Ferguson lay on the bed, his face twitching slightly as the memories flashed through his mind, Mitchell allowed himself a slight smile as he glanced over at Hermione.

“Really going against that ‘Statute of Secrecy’ thing Jackson told us about, aren’t you?” he asked, indicating where Hermione had been sitting when she’d told Ferguson about herself.

“Well, if you can’t break the rules when you’re the one responsible for upholding them, when can you break them?” Hermione replied nonchalantly. “At least I’m experienced enough to know when it’s OK to do it.”

“Interesting philosophy,” Mitchell responded with a brief smile. “Sounds very ‘SG-1’-ish, really.”

“They break the rules a lot?” Hermione asked.

“Starting with the time Jackson took a trip to another reality and came back with a warning about an imminent Goa’uld attack just when the politicians were planning to shut down the Stargate,” Mitchell replied.

Hermione blinked.

“Uh... another _reality_?” she repeated uncertainly.

“What; you haven’t heard about that theory?” Mitchell said, looking at her in surprise.

“What theory?” Hermione asked.

“The theory that there are multiple different universes out there where history took a different turn from our own at some point in the past?” Mitchell asked, waving a hand promptingly at her. “You know, like a universe where Hitler won World War Two, or a reality where America lost the War for Independence, or... a reality where Ron and Ginny _didn’t_ die?”

Hermione could stare at Mitchell’s last statement, the implications for what he’d just revealed being turned over in her mind as she thought them through.

Now that he mentioned it, she _did_ recall hearing something about a theory like that before she went to Hogwarts- she’d been becoming more interested in some science-fiction stories at the time before she learned that she could do magic, and had been contemplating what area of science she’d prefer to focus her studies on when she moved on to higher education-, but the idea that Harry had _been_ to one of those other realities...

“What was it like?” she asked. “The reality he visited, I mean; where did it... diverge... from our history?”

“Well, he didn’t really discuss it in depth- given that when he last saw it Earth had been conquered by the Goa’uld it’s not exactly a cheery subject-, but the main point of divergence seems to be that Jackson never joined the SGC in that reality in the first place, although there _were_ a few other minor tweaks like Sam not being in the military to take into account...” Mitchell replied, shrugging briefly as he looked apologetically at her. “Sorry I don’t really remember much about the specifics of that whole mess, it’s been a long time since I read that file...”

Glancing at his watch, a thought suddenly occurred to him. “We’d better get moving; the mission briefing on the plan to rescue Teal’c’s starting soon.”

“Before you go...” Hermione said, indicating Ferguson with a pointed stare at her new friend.

“Oh, right...” Mitchell said, nodding briefly at her with a slightly uncomfortable stare before he reached over to remove the electrodes from his friend’s head.

“Huh?” Ferguson said, looking at Mitchell in surprise as he realised what had just happened. “What are you doing; why’d you stop?”

“Teal’c’s in trouble,” Mitchell replied; no matter how much he’d picked up so far, Teal’c had been present in his memories for so long that it was practically guaranteed that Ferguson would know who he was. “There’s a rescue op that’s about to leave; Hermione and I have to go.”

“Then go save him-” Ferguson began.

“Just so long as you hang in there until we get back-” Mitchell began.

“Just... get out of here!” Ferguson retorted, indicating the door with an impatient wave of his hand.

“Before I go, I have to say something,” Mitchell said, looking earnestly at his old friend. “You may not like it, but I’m going to have to live with it no matter what I say or do...”

He paused for a moment, clearly still trying to give himself a last moment to say what he’d had trouble saying from the moment he first arrived here, before he finally continued.

“I’m sorry,” he said, staring regretfully at his friend. “I’m doing what I’m doing and you’re not... because I acted rashly. I’m a hothead, and you’re suffering because of it.”

“No,” Ferguson replied with a firm shake of his head. “You’re doing what you’re doing because of who you are.”

“Yeah; I’m impatient, I lose control,” Mitchell said bluntly. “I’m not particularly fond of that side of myself.”

“I didn’t mean that,” Ferguson replied, shaking his head briefly. “When you see an opportunity, you take it. The kind of things that you and me were asked to do, that you’re doing now... you’ve got to be a _little_ angry, you’ve got to be out of control; you think too much, you’re just gonna freeze up...”

“He has a point,” Hermione confirmed with a brief nod. “Trust me; in my experience, the greatest, bravest men I’ve ever met were also at least _slightly_ mad, and they _needed_ that insanity in order to do what made them great.”

“Exactly,” Ferguson said, nodding briefly at Hermione in gratitude for reinforcing his point before he turned back to Mitchell. “As she said, doing what you guys do? You’d have to be a _bit_ nuts.”

“Yeah...” Mitchell said, smiling a brief, grim smile at his friend. “I just... I don’t want to screw this up again.”

“You’d better not,” Ferguson commented with a brief smile. “Teal’c seems like a pretty decent guy... or alien... whatever he is-”

“Jaffa,” Hermione put in.

“Jaffa,” Ferguson said, nodding briefly at Hermione in thanks before he looked back at Mitchell. “Just be yourself, Cam. Trust me; it’s pretty damn good.”

For a moment, the two men simply looked silently at each other, evidently lost in their memories of the times they’d shared together, before Mitchell spoke.

“Thanks,” he said quietly.

“I would have done it for anyone, you know that,” Ferguson said, in the same casual manner that Hermione recognised from Hogwarts as the same tone Harry had used whenever he was dismissing praise for something he’d accomplished. “It’s part of the job.”

“Quite,” Hermione said simply, before she indicated the device with a smile. “Feel free to keep this until we get back; just push that button and the memories begin again.”

“That simple, huh?” Ferguson said, smiling briefly at her. “Thanks.”

After a brief handshake of farewell with the man in the bed from both parties, the witch and the colonel left the room, Mitchell pausing just as Hermione had walked out to turn back and say something to his old friend- Hermione caught something about an air stewardess, but the door and Mitchell’s low voice prevented her from hearing it in depth- before he turned around to face her once again.

“Let’s go,” he said simply.

* * *

  
As Hermione dived through the Stargate, now dressed in dark combat fatigues- auror’s robes might look imposing, but in an unfamiliar environment she’d agreed that the wizards should adopt the SGC’s chosen attire-, her wand out and aiming silent Stunning spells at every Jaffa she could see- none of whom seemed prepared for what she was doing; evidently word about the Death Eaters and what they could do had yet to make a particular impact beyond Voldemort’s immediate ‘allies’ (If you could call a Goa’uld an ‘ally’ when everything Harry had told her about them made it clear that they’d stab each other in the back at the first opportunity)-, she had barely registered Mitchell run past her towards the pyramid-like structure in the distance before she had turned around to hurry after him.

Gunfire might be blazing around her, Tonks and Lupin might be launching spells at a rate she hadn’t seen them display since the last battle with Voldemort- the twins had become fixated with trying to add magical enhancements to some of the alien technology they’d been shown in the SGC, and it had been decided that the current mission required more speed and long-range attack power than Hagrid was capable of (Even without the difficulties involved in getting fatigues in his size)-, and she might have little to no real idea what she was doing, but one thing Hermione was sure of right now was that she was _not_ going to sit by and allow another friend to dive into a dangerous situation on his own when she could help him.

Right now, thought, she was mainly hoping that those reports about what Teal’c might be like if he’d been brainwashed were either exaggerated or unnecessary; the last thing she wanted to do was have to engage in a fight with a new friend when she was still trying to adjust to the idea of the dark wizard who’d terrorised her and her closest friends when she was still a child being back once again...

Ignoring the sight of Jaffa falling to the ground as Mitchell fired his gun at them while he advanced towards the pyramid-and trying not to think too much about the sounds of bombs falling behind them near the Stargate; based on the earlier briefing before the mission began, Hermione could at least be assured that the bomber was one of their allies-, Hermione simply tried to stick close to the colonel and launch a few Stunners when she could to catch a few of the stragglers that Mitchell himself; she had no problem with Mitchell using his gun, but stunning spells still attended to the essential problem of putting the other guy down for the count before he could do anything to you, which was all that really mattered in this situation.

Apart from a brief diversion to take out a cannon that had been firing at their airborne ally- Mitchell took out the operator while Hermione knocked out a Jaffa who tried to sneak up on Mitchell from behind-, the subsequent ‘race’ through an area that looked almost disappointingly like a typical gravel quarry back on Earth- would it be asking too much to go a planet where, for example, the rocks were blue rather than grey?-, Mitchell arrived at the pyramid that had been mentioned in the briefing, the large form of a Goa’uld mothership resting on top of the pyramid.

Hermione almost couldn’t believe the sight in front of her- she wondered briefly what was more insane; that something like this existed in the first place or that she was attempting to break into it with only _one_ ally-, but then she heard something start to hum around her as she followed Mitchell towards a door in the stone pyramid- Hermione launching a couple of quick Stunners to knock out the Jaffa inside the small room.

“Stand there!” Mitchell said, indicating a circle in the middle of the room’s floor, Hermione taking up position facing the door as Mitchell began to frantically tap at a control panel on the wall opposite the door.

“Uh... what are you doing?” Hermione asked, risking a brief glance behind herself as she kept her wand trained on the door in case any more Jaffa arrived.

“Trying to activate this thing’s ring transporters,” Mitchell replied, slight frustration clear in his voice as he continued to tap away at the buttons before him. “If we can turn them on, we can get up to the mothership and hopefully find Teal’c before Ba’al does anything else to him; it’s just been a long time since I had to-”

“Hold that thought,” Hermione said, turning her attention back to the door and firing a couple of quick Stunners as two Jaffa appeared at the sides of the door before turning back to Mitchell. “Explanations later; right now, if you can get us onto the ship, _do_ it.”

Nodding in agreement, Mitchell turned around and continued working away at the control panel, turning back to smile at Hermione just before Sam, Harry, Lupin and Tonks appeared at the door to the room, looking inquiringly at their allies.

“All set for boarding,” Mitchell replied with a brief smile. “What’s it like out there?”

“The rest of the Jaffa guard are retreating this way,” Sam replied grimly. “We can hold the line here, but somebody needs to go up and get Teal’c out of the mothership before Ba’al takes him away...”

“Into an alien ship?” Hermione replied with a smile as she exchanged glances with Mitchell. “Count me in for _that_.”

Mitchell didn’t answer verbally; he simply nodded as he stepped into the circle with Hermione, Sam moving over to activate the last few switches on the control panel. Just as a series of five large rings suddenly erupted from the ground to surround her and Mitchell, Hermione caught a brief glimpse of weapons fire coming from the door to the chamber, only for a bright light to temporarily immobilise her vision...

* * *

  
Followed swiftly by her opening her eyes to find herself standing in a chamber with walls that seemed to be at the very least lined with gold, decorated with what looked like hieroglyphics at a cursory glance which Hermione wouldn’t have minded studying in greater depth if Mitchell hadn’t started running as soon as the rings around them had vanished, leaving her to chase after him with her wand out, Stunning guards as she ran while he shot at them with that ‘Zat gun’ thing she’d been shown earlier.

It was only when Hermione founded a corner to find Mitchell staring at Teal’c and a kneeling Bra’tac, along with a dark-haired man with a neatly-trimmed goatee dressed in a coat and shirt that almost looked like current muggle styles back on Earth apart from the colour (A yellowish-brown pattern that reminded Hermione of the stereotypical image of camouflage gear) and around three other Jaffa, Hermione rapidly moving to stun the guard immediately closest to Bra’tac while Mitchell stunned the other two, leaving Teal’c to shoot the bearded man with his staff weapon before turning back to look at Mitchell.

“I take it this means I don’t have to shoot you?” Mitchell asked hopefully.

“You do not,” Teal’c replied with a brief nod.

“Good to know,” Hermione replied, before moving over to help Bra’tac to his feet. “Are you all right?”

“I will live, Hermione Granger,” Bra’tac replied with a brief smile.

“Well then,” Mitchell put in, indicating the ship around them with an anxious wave of his hand, “if we’re all well now, what say we evacuate this place before whoever’s driving this thing makes the jump to hyperspace?”

“Indeed,” Teal’c replied with a brief nod as they headed back towards the ring transporter thing, Hermione making a mental note to ask for the identity of the bearded man when she had the time to do so back on Earth.

Right now, though, she’d prefer to focus on the fact that she had just completed a successful mission against an unfamiliar enemy during her first confrontation with them- her previous trips through the Stargate had also dealt with Voldemort’s followers rather than the exclusively Jaffa adversaries she’d faced here- and leave issues like that until later.


	30. Discussions, Deliberations and Discoveries

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight incorporation of a few post-DH events here, but it's nothing major; a few details about the structure of the Ministry of Magic, maybe some points about the family lives of some of the other characters, things like that  
> A wand-related idea that Sam comes up with here was inspired by the Batman/Harry crossover "Sufficiently Advanced Technology", but I'm putting my own interpretation on things

As he sat silently behind his desk in his office, staring at the screen before him without actually processing what was happening on it- he knew that he had to write up some reports on recent events but it was hard to really bring yourself to focus when you had so much else going through your mind-, Daniel almost couldn't believe how rapidly things were progressing.

It had barely been a fortnight since Voldemort's resurrection- well, since he'd become _aware_ of Voldemort's resurrection, anyway; he freely acknowledged that all available evidence made it clear that Voldemort had been alive and re-assembling his forces for almost a decade without anyone knowing before he'd come to the SGC-, and already he felt like he was back at Hogwarts, running around trying to piece together the information that he'd found into some kind of remotely organised shape that would allow him to figure out what his old enemy was actually up to...

It was a _bit_ easier to do that now than it had been back then, of course- for one thing, nobody was trying to conceal information from him because he was 'too young'; anything he didn't know about Voldemort's plans yet was only a mystery because nobody else knew it either-, but that still left him with all kinds of other issues to figure out, including the obvious issue of whether he should see about bringing any more of his old friends in to help. Arthur and Molly Weasley might be too old now to make any kind of positive contribution to the current crisis (Although he was already contemplating the possibility of paying them a visit later on once this situation was over)- to say nothing of Mad-Eye Moody, even assuming he'd survived this long; he'd lost track of the old Auror during the last days of the war and there'd been no reference to him in the news that he'd received since-, but there were a few former members of the Order of the Phoenix such as Kingsley Shacklebolt who might be able to help out (He obviously wasn't going to bring Mundungus Fletcher in, of course; putting aside the fact that the man had raided Sirius's house and sold off his possessions practically the day after he'd died, the last thing he wanted was Fletcher getting access to the Stargate and risk him becoming the wizarding male equivalent of Vala Mal Doran), and that was without considering the old members of 'Dumbledore's Army' who might be interested...

In the end, though, the issue of the recruitment of additional personal was something that Hermione would be better at than him given her superior knowledge of the status of his old allies in the Order of the Phoenix; it was one of the reasons she'd gone back to Britain for a few days. She'd left Kinglsey Shacklebolt in charge of the Ministry in her absence- the former Auror had been elected to the position after the war but had stood aside and allowed Hermione to stand for the position in his last election, a year or so before Daniel's Ascension; according to the _Daily Prophet_ s he'd received at the time Shacklebolt had stated that he preferred field work and wanted to get in a few more active years before his retirement, and felt that the more youthful Hermione would make a good candidate to continue the reforms he'd begun-, trusting the older man to keep things running smoothly without too many people learning about her absence, but there were still a few issues that would require her personal attention and signature that Kingsley couldn't handle himself.

Indeed, the only real problem for Hermione had been how to get her back to the Ministry in the first place. Since the wards around the Ministry detected Apparation even if they didn't block it directly- the possibility of an emergency visit was something that nobody could overlook-, it had been decided that a link had to be established from the SGC to the British floo network, reasoning that people kept less of an eye on the floo system on the grounds that all entrances were carefully monitored and in full view at all times, allowing Hermione to easily travel to the fireplace in her office where only Shacklebolt would be aware of her presence.

Thanks to a couple of charms from Lupin and Hermione, accompanied by some quick maintenance work from Sergeant Siler, a makeshift 'fireplace' had soon been established in an unused room on Level Seventeen, linked to one of the air vents to provide a connection to the main system. Lupin and Hermione had contributed a few charms to prevent the smoke from the fire from drifting into any of the other rooms in the base, and from there it had been relatively simple to establish the SGC's link to the traditional Floo network (Hermione had simply told Daniel that they knew people in the Floo Network Authority who wouldn't ask too many questions and left it at that).

Hermione's current absence aside, however, things seemed to be going well with his old wizarding allies' integration into daily operations at the SGC. Fred and George had settled down to read over a few mission reports of some of the SGC's more interesting past missions- Daniel had a feeling that they'd particularly enjoy the superficial aspects of the mission to Argos, while the information about the final fates of Abydos and the Tollan should reinforce the scale of what their current enemies were capable of-, Lupin and Tonks were getting the 'guided tour' of some of the alien technology salvaged over the years from Mitchell, and the last he'd heard Hagrid and Teal'c had agreed to have a few sparring sessions

"Daniel?" a voice said from his door.

Glancing up, Daniel smiled slightly at the sight of Sam standing there, a couple of mugs of coffee in her hands.

"Thought you could use something to keep you up," she said, indicating the cups by way of explanation. "It's been a... difficult... couple of weeks; even if we can't stop you coming into work, you need more than adrenaline to keep you going."

"Yeah... good point," Daniel said, briefly glancing at his clock as he took the cup and noting with some surprise that he'd been going over the reports for at least three hours since he came in that morning; he'd been more focused than he'd thought. "Any word from Hermione yet?"

"Nothing yet, but Siler said he's keeping an eye on the... fireplace... in case anything comes up," Sam replied her expression clearly reflecting her slight scepticism at her last statement.

"Still having trouble with it all, huh?" Daniel said, standing up from behind the desk and walking around to stand beside Sam, smiling slightly at her.

"Well... a bit, anyway," Sam admitted with an apologetic shrug. "I mean, I _believe_ in it, don't get me wrong, but after we've spent so long being able to prove that most of the 'magic' of the Goa'uld had a fundamentally scientific explanation behind it, the idea of an entire magical world, with _genuine_ magic, operating on Earth without us knowing it..."

"If it's any consolation, I don't think it ever gets any easier," Daniel said, smiling over at Sam with a brief nod. "I spent seven years in the wizarding world between eleven and seventeen, and they _still_ managed to come up with new ways to surprise me right up to the end."

He shook his head slightly wistfully at the thought. "I mean, it wasn't always _good_ surprises, of course, but they were always interesting; the chance to see a few dragons might have been terrifying under the circumstances, but-"

"Hold on; _dragons_?" Sam repeated, looking incredulously at Harry. "Actual _dragons_?"

"Oh yeah; Hagrid actually tried to raise one during my first year, but he had to give it away when it got too big to stay safely in his hut," Daniel said, smiling wistfully at the memory; the whole mess with Norbert might have been an unwanted inconvenience at the time, but looking back on those events without the panic of the time he had to admit that the dragon had actually been kind of cute...

"Talking of which, how's Hagrid doing?" he asked, looking curiously at Sam. "I heard something about him being given a few pointers on hand-to-hand combat from Teal'c..."

"Yeah, I just passed them by in one of the training room," Sam said, smiling slightly at the memory of the confrontation. "It's actually the most even fight I think I've ever seen Teal'c have since he joined us, really; Hagrid doesn't really have the hand-to-hand skills to beat him, but his sheer size definitely helps..."

"It's the obvious disadvantage of him being half-giant, really," Daniel said, shrugging wistfully at the memory. "Even without the fact that he's mostly immune to various forms of fighting magic because of his giant blood, he's so big that most things aren't that much of a danger to him; he tried to raise a giant spider- it was approximately the size of a small dog when he was at school and it was at least as big as his hut when I was at Hogwarts- back when he was about thirteen despite the fact that it could be dangerous, and then there was Fluffy..."

"'Fluffy'?" Sam asked uncertainly.

"His three-headed dog," Daniel replied, smiling slightly at Sam's stunned expression. "Yeah, I couldn't believe what he called it either, but that's Hagrid for you; he doesn't always recognise just how dangerous something can be."

"Uh..." Sam said after a brief, contemplative pause, clearly debating the merits of the question she was about to ask before her curiosity won over, "on the topic of Hagrid... what you said about him being part _giant_... I just wondered how that..."

"I don't know how his parents managed to have any kind of relationship," Daniel replied, knowing what Sam was going to ask; it was the same thought that had crossed his mind more than once whenever Hagrid's mother came up in a conversation, but he'd never felt that the time to ask it was right, even without Hagrid's own discomfort about his parentage. "I know that his mother left him and his father when he was about three, and his father died in his second year of Hogwarts, but that's about it; it never exactly seemed like something you could comfortably bring up in conversation. The closest I ever got to learning more about his family was when we met his brother-"

"His brother?" Sam interjected.

"Well, his half-brother, anyway; his mother had a son with another giant shortly after she left his father," Daniel clarified, smiling briefly at the memory of Grawp attacking Umbridge and the centaurs that had been about to kill him and Hermione before he continued his story. "Anyway, all Hagrid told us about her then was that she'd died a while after she gave birth to Grawp- that was his brother's name-, but he didn't regard it as much of a loss as she wasn't that good as a mother; she abandoned both him and Grawp because they were fairly small by giant standards. He was so private about his half-giant status that we only heard about it by accident in fourth year, and even then it took us practically breaking his door down to convince him that we didn't care about it."

"Oh," Sam said, the two simply sitting in silent contemplation for a moment before she looked back at Daniel. "He... he means a lot to you, doesn't he?"

Despite the length of time that had passed since those days when Hagrid had meant so much to him, Daniel smiled.

"Yeah... he does," he said, a wistful tone in his voice at the memories of the old days back at school. "I mean, I had other friends at Hogwarts, of course, but Hagrid was the first person I ever met who actually really cared about _me_ ; when I was at school before my cousin bullied anyone who even _looked_ like they were trying to talk to me. He was the one who first actually told me about what had happened to my parents... he took me to buy my first school supplies... he even brought me Hedwig..."

"Your owl?" Sam asked, remembering the white bird that she'd seen in Hermione's office.

"Yeah..." Daniel replied, smiling at the memory. "She was one memento I'd wished that I could take with me, but it would have been too difficult explaining to anyone I met how I ended up with an _owl_ for a pet; Hedwig's not exactly normal, after all."

"True," Sam said, smiling briefly at him before she looked more curiously at him. "Talking of normal, I was wondering... could I... well, you showed me your wand earlier, but-"

With a quick flick of his wrist, Daniel's wand fell from his sleeve and was instantly clasped in his hand, passing it to Sam with a slight smile.

"Just be careful with it," he said as Sam took the offered wand from him, holding it close to her face with a slightly incredulous smile. "I don't think it'll do anything it shouldn't if I _give_ it to you, but I've never been clear on how wands respond to muggles..."

"I'll keep that in mind," Sam said, holding the wand in one hand and waving it slightly with a slightly amused smile on her face at the feel of it- Daniel noting with relief that it didn't even let off sparks or anything like that like the other wands he'd 'practised' with had done when he was trying to find his wand in Ollivander's originally- before she passed it back to Daniel. "And you really cast... _spells_ with that?"

"Yeah, and it's... well, it's 'unique' to me as well, actually," Daniel continued, a wistful smile on his face as he looked at his wand. "Each wand's made up of a unique combination of wood, core and length; my wand and Voldemort's wand both share cores in the form of a phoenix-feather from the tale of the same phoenix, but his wand's thirteen and a half inches long and made of yew wood while mine's eleven inches long and made of holly, as an example."

"Your wand... shares a core with Voldemort's?" Sam repeated, looking uncertainly at Daniel with that same quizzical expression that she always got when presented with a new puzzle that she didn't immediately understand. "Is... that important?"

"Well, it _does_ result in an interesting side-effect when the two of us fought with our wands," Daniel replied. "Basically, the two wands don't actually work properly against each other, with the result that, when Voldemort and I actually tried to cast a spell against our opponent, our wands linked and... well, I ended up 'forcing' his wand to reverse through all the spells it had performed previously."

"And... that meant?" Sam asked.

"From what Dumbledore said, since the wands wouldn't battle their 'brother', I ended up using force of will to make Voldemort's wand repeat the spells it had performed previously, to the extent that it generated ghostly... after-images, I guess is the best term... of the people Voldemort had killed with it," Daniel explained. "It also generated this... I guess the best term looking back is 'force field'... that cut me and him off from the rest of the Death Eaters, but..."

His voice trailed off as he looked over at Sam, a reflective expression on his face. "Hold on a minute..."

"You think that we could... duplicate the force field effect?" Sam asked, looking at Daniel with a slight smile as she followed his train of thought; the idea of opposing forces managing to cancel each other out _did_ create some significant potential...

"Well, it won't work if Voldemort's changed wands since I last fought him- I'm not exactly clear on if him using a new body means that he's had to change his wand or if he's still able to use the old one-, but it _could_ be worth looking into..." Daniel said, a slight smile on his face as he looked over at Sam while turning this theory over in his mind. "I mean, if we assume there's something that my wand and his wand share that makes spells cast with them react to each other in a certain manner, it _could_ be possible to isolate it...."

Even as the conversation continued, Daniel would be the first to admit that he had no idea where he was going to go with this new line of inquiry, but he had a feeling that it was going to result in at least one _very_ interesting new idea for fighting Voldemort...

* * *

  
As she sat behind her desk in the Ministry going over the files before her- Kingsley might have made an effective 'ghost Minister' in her absence, but there were always those forms that only she could sign off on-, Hermione allowed herself a few moments to reflect on the events of the last few days.

She wasn't sure what had been more shocking for her since these events had begun, quite frankly; learning that Voldemort was still alive, learning about the life that Harry had made for himself since she'd last seen him, discovering that aliens were real...

She hadn't been through this much of an emotional roller-coaster since she'd first learned that she was a witch, and even then the fact that she'd been a child had made it easier for her mind to adapt to the shift; this latest chain of events had come when she had been certain she knew what to expect of the world and had subsequently left her feeling like she'd been completely thrown for a loop.

Quite frankly, if she'd heard it from anyone else but Harry, she probably wouldn't have believed it; only the fact that Harry had developed a distinct distaste for people lying to him about what was happening after the nightmarish mess that had been his fifth year prior to Sirius's death had allowed her to even _remotely_ contemplate that he'd been telling her the truth.

Of course, that still left the issue of why he'd stopped sending them cards to at least assure them that he was alive a few years ago to be answered, but Hermione was fairly sure that she'd learn the answer to that one eventually if it mattered.

With the last few forms still awaiting her attention having been filled in and filed away- after the mass clearings Kingsley and the Order had organised after Voldemort's 'death' and Harry's disappearance the Ministry was operating far better than it had before; with more muggle-borns given the opportunity to rise in the system under the new regime a few new methods of filing had been introduced, while the increased inter-office communication inspired by the old friendships formed in the D.A. meant that people relied more on each other to encourage their efforts rather than doing it all themselves-, Hermione turned her attention to the more personal matter she'd come back to attend to; consulting a few books on wizarding history that Bill Weasley had recommended to her a while back (She'd been contemplating a career as a curse-breaker at the time but never gotten around to reading them after Sirius's death) to see if she noticed anything new about them after... recent revelations.

It might be a relatively pointless investigation, she knew, but after Harry's revelation that the pyramids had been built by those 'Goa'uld' and the curses installed afterwards, she had to confess to being interested in how the Goa'uld might have had an impact on other areas of magical history. The Fountain of Youth alone had always been a bit of a question-mark for her- if there _was_ a fountain that could make the drinker young again, why had Voldemort never even _tried_ to find it-, but other possible angles were only just starting to occur to her; if you traced the discovery that the Egyptian pyramids had been constructed by aliens to its logical conclusion, that raised the question of what kind of role they'd played in the construction of _other_ temples...

She felt like making sure that any other loose ends that cropped up today were dealt with as soon as possible anyway; as long as it was fairly quiet here so far, she might as well see about getting something to show for her efforts before she went back to the SGC.

Besides, if things _did_ get as ugly as they had the potential to become- with Voldemort reborn once more and his Death Eaters now operating on an inter-galactic scale with access to technology that nobody in the wizarding world and relatively few people in the muggle world would have _any_ idea how to cope with, Hermione felt fairly safe assuming that the worst would happen in the current situation-, she wanted to make sure that she'd drawn up a list of the best possible Aurors- as well as those in other fields of employment; Neville might be the Herbology professor now but he was still a more-than-competent duellist- to help them out if they needed it...

And contrary to what her subconscious might think, she was _not_ doing this merely to avoid thinking about Cameron Mitchell and his devil-may-care smile combined with a genuine depth of passion that she hadn't seen in someone since Ron; her reasons for being here were _totally_ legitimate!

She just wished that she could make _herself_ believe that...

* * *

  
It might have been a relatively pointless thing to be proud of, but even with the current dual crisis of the Priors' continued presence in this galaxy on top of the return of this 'Moldiwart' sucker, Mitchell had to admit that he was rather enjoying the chance to show somebody around the SGC; after so long being the 'new guy'- even if he'd done what he could to prove himself in his new position-, it was a change to be the 'expert' for once.

Plus, of course, it was actually kind of cool listening to some of Lupin and Tonks's tales of the wizarding world, both back in Jackson's day and what had happened since he'd left; it was giving him a whole new insight into Jackson's character.

"So you're telling me that Jackson- Harry- whatever- travelled in time for the first time when he was _thirteen_?" Mitchell said, staring incredulously at the tale he'd just heard from Lupin.

"It _was_ only a few hours backwards; it's not like it was a significant time frame," Lupin said, shrugging nonchalantly.

"Yeah, I know, but still, _thirteen_?" Mitchell repeated, shaking his head incredulously. "I mean, he might have gone back further when he went to 1969, but-"

"He went to _1969_?" Tonks repeated incredulously. "How-?"

"Oh, there's this thing where the Stargate can be disrupted to send the user back to an earlier point in time if they go through it under certain conditions; it's a complicated story and it's not that important anyway," Mitchell said, before he walked over to a nearby door and opened it with a casual flourish, revealing a large room filled with all kinds of equipment. Lupin vaguely noted a few objects that looked like Teal'c's staff weapons sitting off to the side of the room, what seemed to be an elaborately-designed mirror with several large cracks in the glass, and a large gold box that put Lupin vaguely in mind of a sarcophagus from Egypt.

"This is just a storage area for some of the alien tech we've found in the last year or so; mostly the stuff we're either still working on figuring out or the stuff we don't need to bother about any more," Mitchell said, shrugging nonchalantly. "You'd be amazed how tricky it is to work out how some of these things work; it took us around seven years to crack this virtual reality thing the SGC found in the first year..."

"Virtual what?" Tonks asked in confusion.

"Virtual reality," Mitchell said with a casual shrug, indicating what looked like a large chair with a few cables sticking out around the part where a head would be if someone was sitting in the 'chair'. "Basically, you enter the information about the world and scenario you want to create into this thing, and it then uses that data to create a completely artificial world that's projected directly into the user's brain- that's where the cables come in; they're placed on your head and transmit the data directly- without them being consciously aware that it's not real; the people on the planet where they were discovered had been using those things for _years_ without really knowing the difference before Jackson's team got them out, and we recently started using them as a system for performing training exercises... once we'd ironed the bugs out, anyway."

"Oh," Tonks said, pausing for a moment to study the rest of the machinery in the room around her before her eyes fell on a small-ish device in the corner of the room on top of a box. In appearance, it looked like a halved hexagon with a slight indent on the inner area, the 'interior' consisting of a four-levelled layout that reminded Tonks of a small flight of stairs with multiple buttons on it in a manner that reminded Tonks of the keyboards she'd seen in the SGC computers, with a small blue 'screen' of some sort positioned in the middle of the top 'level' of the device.

However, although the design of the object itself was relatively simple, there was something about the device itself that... _felt_... _something_...

"So, what's this?" she asked, trying to push that nagging feeling to the back of her mind as she indicated the device in question; given the scale of some of the other objects she'd seen in the room, this device seemed almost out of place given its small size.

"Oh, that?" Mitchell said, shrugging slightly as he glanced at the device. "Don't think we've gotten around to working out what that is yet; it's something Merlin left behind in Glastonbury-"

" _Merlin_?" Lupin repeated, spinning around to look incredulously at the colonel, unable to believe his ears despite his traditionally heightened senses as a werewolf. "As in, _Merlin_ Merlin? _King Arthur's_ Merlin? The _wizard_ Merlin?"

"Oh, you mean you guys _do_ know about him?" Mitchell said, looking at her with a brief smile. "I thought about asking about that earlier, but it never seemed like the right time-"

"I'm sorry, could you go back a few moments to the part where you knew about Merlin but _didn't_ know about magic until this whole thing with Voldemort happened?" Tonks asked, waving a hand at Mitchell in frustration.

"He was an Ancient," Mitchell replied nonchalantly.

* * *

  
Despite himself, the lieutenant colonel had to admit to feeling slightly pleased with himself at the subsequently stunned expression that crossed the faces of his two new friends; after spending so long feeling as though he was the one who'd had the main shocks these last few days after learning that magic was real, there was something satisfying in being able to shake up the wizarding view of the world as well.

"An... an _Ancient_?" Lupin said incredulously at last. "As in, the race who created the Stargates? The race who... turned into energy to escape a plague?"

"Bingo," Mitchell replied, nodding at Lupin with a brief smile. "'Course, what we've got about him suggests that he was an Ancient who stayed human rather than Ascend himself, but he was definitely an Ancient..."

"Wait a minute, you're saying that the most famous wizard of all time... was an _alien_?" Tonks put in, waving a hand incredulously at the colonel as she indicated the device once again. "And he made-"

Before Tonks could finish her sentence, her waving hand came in contact with the device, causing it to suddenly glow with a brilliant white light that enveloped the storeroom. Before anyone could react, the light faded away as soon as it had appeared, leaving Lupin and Mitchell staring in confusion as Tonks slumped to the ground in front of them, her hair having gone from its previous shade of purple to a mousy brown and her breathing regular as though she'd just fallen asleep, the device now displaying a projection that Mitchell automatically recognised as Ancient writing.

"Huh," he said, looking at the Ancient writing now hovering above the device in surprise. "Now _that's_ new..."

"It's... never done this before, I take it?" Lupin asked, looking over at Mitchell with barely-concealed apprehension.

"Nope," Mitchell replied with a brief shake of his head as he crouched down beside Tonks, briefly checking her pulse to confirm that she was still breathing before he turned his attention back to the writing before them. "Well, at least we got _something_ out of this; now all we need to do is translate the stuff..."

It was only when he turned around again and realised that his arm had just passed right through the remains of the quantum mirror- kept here out of a lack of anywhere else to store it- that Mitchell realised the situation was more complicated than he'd initially assumed.


	31. Arthur's Mantle

"Oh my God..." Lupin said, staring in shock at where Mitchell's arm had just passed through a solid object. "Are... are we...?"

"Dead?" Mitchell finished, shaking his head as his gaze shifted between his arm, the mirror he'd just passed through, and the device that had apparently done this to them. "Not really buying that, particularly not when Tonks there's still breathing with a pulse; my best guess is... hold on, I read something about this happening before..."

"Read about what; something that... _disintegrates_ people?" Lupin protested, waving his hand at the device and the area around him. "Look at us; we pass _through_ solid objects, there's not even piles of ash on the floor where we were standing, and-"

"Look, Lupin, I get that you're freaking out here, but think about it; why would something designed to kill people like _that_ project _writing_ at the same time?" Mitchell cut in, indicating the illuminated orange text above the device. "There's no way something used to show us that could be designed to kill us at the same time; the Ancients had their issues, but designing something that does that is just _way_ too extreme..."

"Hold on; the Ancients?" Lupin interjected, shaking his head as though making sure he hadn't missed something. "What have they got to do with this?"

"Oh, that's Ancient in front of us; didn't I mention that?" Mitchell asked, looking back at the werewolf in slight surprise.

"Ah... right," Lupin said, nodding in uncertain understanding as he studied the writing in question before he looked back at Mitchell. "Can you...?"

"Read it?" Mitchell finished, shaking his head. "No dice, sorry; Jackson's the resident recognised genius when it comes to this language, and if this is anything like what I think it is, than we're..."

He paused mid-sentence and clicked his fingers, a broad grin spreading across his face at the realisation. "Of _course_ ; the crystal skull!"

"The what?" Lupin asked in confusion.

"Oh, sorry; you haven't read that one yet, have you?" Mitchell asked, promptly reminding himself not to bring up the issue of Daniel's grandfather's involvement in the mission he was about to describe unless he had to; from what Jackson had said at the time he got the impression that Nicholas Ballard was a touchy subject at best. "Basically, a few years back Jackson discovered a crystal skull which shifted him 'out of phase' with the rest of the world- he was still there, but he was totally invisible and he couldn't actually touch anything-, and the only person who could see him was this old guy who'd been exposed to the same circumstances a couple of decades back; I'm thinkin' that, if it worked _then_..."

"It should work now?" Lupin finished, nodding in understanding before he shifted his gaze to look at Tonks. "But... well, Tonks..."

"Don't worry, feel free to stay here until I get Jackson; we only need one of us to get his attention," Mitchell said, smiling briefly at Lupin reassuringly before he turned to walk out of the door of the storeroom- taking care to close his eyes as he did it; the concept of seeing the _inside_ of a door wasn't something he was that keen on-, turning around just in time to see Jackson walking towards him-

Only for Jackson- with Sam walking alongside him, Mitchell noted- to walk directly through him without showing any reaction to his presence, continuing on down the corridor while chatting with Sam as though nothing had happened.

Glancing after the archaeologist, Mitchell swallowed.

"Aw, _crap_ ," he muttered, shaking his head grimly. "This is _not_ good..."

If Jackson couldn't see him in his current condition- he'd worry about _why_ that was the case later, although his best guess was that the fact that he _hadn't_ been turned intangible by the crystal skull had something to do with it; maybe he wasn't operating on the right 'frequency' for Jackson to see him or something freaky like that-, then they were in _serious_ trouble when it came to figuring out a way out of this current mess...

* * *

  
"Something up, Harry?" Fred asked as Daniel walked into the commissary a couple of hours later, looking curiously at his almost-brother-in-law as the archaeologist sat down at the table beside him.

"Just... puzzled, really," Daniel replied, staring uncertainly at his tray while picking at his food (the food at Hogwarts remained the best group-prepared food he'd ever discovered, but the SGC still had its good days). "I've been looking for Mitchell and Lupin for the last hour, but they don't seem to be anywhere, and even Tonks is missing; Sam's just gone to check the security cameras to see if she can trace where they went that way..."

"Security cameras?" George added, glancing over from where he sat opposite his brother. "Isn't that a bit extreme? I mean-"

"We're dealing with a resurrected Voldemort who has access to alien technology; add in the issue of the Ori and the Trust and there's _nothing_ too extreme to make sure everyone's where they should be," Daniel said, looking grimly over at Fred; he appreciated that the twins had been living in a relatively peaceful world for the last few years, but after he'd spent the last few years fighting the Goa'uld, a degree of paranoia was almost a requirement even _without_ the likes of the Trust and the NID taken into account...

"The Trust?" George asked.

"Oh, they're this organisation we've been dealing with for the last couple of years," Daniel replied. "They used to be part of the NID-"

"That group that tried to use technology from a race you'd rescued when they didn't want to share it with you?" Fred asked.

"Yeah, that's right," Daniel confirmed. "Back when we began, they spent most of their time trying to take control of the Stargate program, reasoning that we should take any technology we could find out there regardless of whether anyone else might need it- they once used a second Stargate to steal a device capable of controlling the weather from a planet we'd visited-, as well as being backed by a committee of various business conglomerates interested in exploiting alien technology for financial gain. We managed to shut them down after we discovered information about the Committee's influence on NID protocols with some assistance from Senator Kinsey- even if none of us were exactly happy about working with him-, but the remaining renegades went underground as the Trust, resorting to such methods as creating a Goa'uld/human hybrid to try and gain access to Goa'uld genetic knowledge-"

"Genetic knowledge?" George asked in confusion.

"All Goa'uld are born with access to at least some of the knowledge of their 'parent'- Goa'uld breeding's a complicated process that's not really relevant right now-, but the conception of a human child when both parents are Goa'uld hosts allows the child to gain access to _all_ knowledge of the Goa'uld who gave birth to them; theoretically, such a child would have knowledge even regular Goa'uld wouldn't know, which would make control of such a kid a valuable resource for the Goa'uld," Daniel elaborated, before he continued his original story. "Anyway, the Trust eventually managed to gain control of a Goa'uld ship and tried to use it to attack Goa'uld-controlled worlds with the aid of a symbiote poison, but the Trust agents that travelled offworld were taken over by Goa'uld symbiotes, who brought further symbiotes back to Earth and were able to take control of the organisation themselves. These days the organisation's under the control of Ba'al, the last remaining System Lord-"

"Hold on; wasn't Ba'al the guy responsible for that whole mess with Teal'c being kidnapped recently?" Fred asked, clicking his fingers as the memory hit him. "I think I remember hearing his name at one point, but what with Landry keeping us back-"

"He felt that you weren't exactly ready to be trusted with a politically sensitive mission like that given how recently you got involved in this whole mess; it's nothing _personal_ ," Daniel said, shaking his head slightly at the twins before he turned back to the current story. "The point is that we don't exactly have a complete guarantee of safety even here; we've been keeping information about your presence relatively secret, but it's not _impossible_ to assume that they could have been kidnapped..."

"Kidnapped?" a voice said, prompting the twins and Daniel to turn and look at the shocked form of Hermione Granger, looking between her old friends in slight shock. "Who's been kidnapped?"

"Possibly nobody; Lupin, Tonks and Colonel Mitchell aren't anywhere on-base, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they've been _kidnapped_ by anybody, Harry's just going over all the possibilities..." Fred said, trying to smile reassuringly at Hermione.

"Actually," Sam's voice said, the astrophysicist's voice cutting into the conversation as she walked over to join the group, her expression slightly uncertain, "I'm not certain _what_ it means."

"Pardon?" Hermione asked, looking at the other woman in confusion.

"I just finished tracking their movements on the security camera footage after we noticed that they were missing," Sam explained. "According to the recordings, Mitchell took Lupin and Tonks to check out our storeroom for some of the alien technology we've salvaged and just don't know what to actually _do_ with, but when Tonks came in contact with something in there it triggered a flash of some sort-"

"The Quantum Mirror?" Daniel asked urgently.

"No, it wasn't the mirror," Sam answered, shaking her head reassuringly at Daniel before her expression settled onto a more concerned gaze. "That's actually what worries me; I don't know what the device they activated _does_ , apart from the fact that we found it at Glastonbury."

"Oh," Daniel said, his eyes widening in understanding. "You're thinking that they activated something that Merlin-"

" _MERLIN_?!" Fred, George and Hermione yelled out practically simultaneously, spinning around to stare incredulously at Daniel at his last words.

"What does _Merlin_ have to do with anything here?" Hermione asked, looking at Daniel in confusion. "I thought you said that you only told them about who you were when Voldemort came back-"

"I did," Daniel replied, unable to restrain a slight smile of anticipation as he looked at Hermione, wondering how she'd react to the latest news he was about to tell her, the concern over Mitchelll and Lupin briefly pushed aside in favour of the anticipation of her response. "However, we discovered an Ancient treasure-trove- 'Ancient' in the sense of the race who had created the Stargates rather than just being old-, which included, among other things, a tablet that revealed that the person who left the treasure there was Myrrdin, an Ancient who returned to Earth from Atlantis... Myrrdin also being known to us now as _Merlin_."

The part of Daniel Jackson that would always be Harry Potter first and foremost couldn't help but feel a certain satisfaction at the sight of Hermione, Fred and George being simultaneously silenced by the news he'd just revealed; after so long with Hermione being the one to leave him feeling confused with the various random trivial knowledge she was able to display, or the twins leaving the entire school stunned with their latest prank, silencing all three of them simultaneously was no small task, no matter how long it lasted.

"Merlin... was an _alien_?!" Hermione said at last, staring at Daniel as though trying to decide if he was making a joke or trying to give her a meltdown.

"Well, in the sense that he wasn't human, yes; what evidence we've discovered suggests that the Ancients originally came from another galaxy before they settled on Earth, but biologically and physically they were essentially just as human as we are..." Daniel said, before he waved a hand dismissively as he turned back to look at Sam even as he made a note to spare some time to talk to Hermione about the implications of Merlin's origin when they'd found their missing teammates. "Getting back to the current issue, what did they actually touch?"

* * *

  
" _Great_..." Tonks muttered, rolling her eyes as she lay slumped against the wall in a rarely-used room that Lupin and Mitchell had dragged her into- even if they couldn't actually be hurt in this state, neither of them wanted to have to deal with people walking through them all the time-, looking at her husband and her new friend as she processed what she'd just learnt. "So, in other words, we've been rendered totally invisible _and_ intangible to everyone around us, and nobody has _any_ reason to assume that we're anything other than dead?"

"Essentially, yes," Lupin replied, nodding grimly at her. "Believe me, I wish we had better news..."

"Hey, look on the bright side; it can't get worse," Mitchell said with a brief shrug.

"In what way?" Tonks asked, looking pointedly over at him.

"Well, in case you hadn't noticed, we don't have any _food_ in this new dimension," Mitchell pointed out, waving a hand at their surrounds and even passing it through the wall. "Even _without_ thinking about the _other_ bodily issues we've got to cope with right now, we've got some _serious_ problems if we're here too long..."

"Oh no..." Lupin whispered, his eyes widening in shock as he suddenly realised something.

"What?" Mitchell asked, looking curiously over at his new friend.

"It's the full moon tonight," Lupin said, his face ashen as he looked at the other two.

"Yeah, so-?" Mitchell began, only for his eyes to widen in understanding. "Oh crap... you're a werewolf, right?"

"Exactly," Lupin confirmed, his expression becoming grimmer as he spoke. "And given that none of us have wands- or, looking at you, any _other_ kind of weapon- on us at this time, if I should transform at this stage..."

"It won't come to that," Mitchell said resolutely, hoping that he was being accurate in his statement; as much as he might have faith in Jackson and the rest of SG-1, if nobody could even see them this might take longer than they had...

Hopefully _this can't get worse_ , Mitchell amended, deciding not to voice the statement himself; if the universe could leave him trapped in another dimension with a werewolf who was about to transform that night the _first_ time he said things couldn't get worse, he didn't want to tempt it to try and prove him wrong again.

* * *

  
An hour later, having studied the surveillance tapes of the storeroom and determined what device had been activated prior to Mitchell, Lupin and Tonk's sudden disappearance, the group was standing around the device after it had been moved to the lab and hooked up to a power source- how it had activated in the storeroom nobody knew yet, but if they were going to solve this problem-, all of them going over the information they'd gathered about what had happened to their teammates in the storeroom.

"So, what have we got?" Landry asked as he looked pointedly between Lee and Hermione as they examined the device; as the currently-available best experts on science and magic, they'd been put in charge of the research into the device to try and determine what it had actually done.

"Well..." Lee said, shrugging uncertainly as he looked at the general. "We know that Ms. Tonks touched the device... we know that the device does not give off any typical energy signatures emitted by Ancient transporter technology... that leads us to the conclusion that they disappeared without leaving the room."

"How's that possible?" Landry asked.

"Well, I _did_ initially think it was miniaturization, but Minister Granger here was able to confirm that there's no trace of anything like that in this situation," Lee said, clearly embarrassed at the reference to the failure of his original idea. "With that in mind, we've branched out to scanning across various bandwidths, but the most unusual thing we've been able to find so far are traces of lepton radiation, and even that isn't really anything-"

"Hold on; lepton radiation?" Daniel interrupted, looking sharply over at Lee from where he'd been studying the device itself; so far he'd made a few notes about the keys on the 'keyboard' being written in the Ancient alphabet, but he still hadn't managed to determine anything specific about it.

"Is that important?" George put in curiously.

"Well, _maybe_..." Daniel admitted with a thoughtful nod, glancing over at Sam and Lee. "You remember that incident with the crystal skull?"

"The what?" Hermione asked, looking over at Daniel in confusion.

"Oh, we just encountered this crystal skull on another planet that turned Daniel- and later the rest of us- completely invisible and intangible until we managed to make contact with the alien race responsible for it and get them to turn us back to normal..." Sam said, only to trail off as she realised the implications of Daniel bringing that topic up. "Hold on, are you thinking...?"

"That this device does the same thing?" Daniel finished, nodding at her with a confirming smile. "I'd need to double-check a few things in my books, but from what I can remember, one of the objects King Arthur was meant to have brought back from the Celtic underworld after he went on a quest there was a cloak capable of rendering the wearer invisible that doesn't match traditional invisibility cloaks-"

"Hold on; 'traditional invisibility cloaks'?" Landry repeated, looking pointedly at the wizards gathered before him. "As in, there's such a thing as a _real_ invisibility cloak?"

"Yeah, invisibility cloaks exist, but the portrayal of them in what I've read of Merlin doesn't match the cloaks I know; with a traditional cloak you need to use it to cover yourself completely- such as draping it over your head- rather than just wearing it, for one thing," Daniel replied before he continued. "Anyway, with that in mind, it's possible that this device here is the actual source of Merlin's invisibility; medieval historians could well have attributed the powers of the device to a cloak simply because they didn't understand it, and they could have credited its recovery to Arthur out of deference to the king who was in power at the time. Given what we know now, it seems much more likely that it was Merlin who actually built the device-"

"And... why would he do that?" Fred asked curiously, a slight smile on his face as he looked at his old friend and investor in his new element (He and George were actually rather enjoying the sight of Hermione looking to someone else for answers for a change; she might be the Minister of Magic now, but to them she'd always be their almost-sister-in-law who'd tried to encourage them to do better when they didn't want to). "I mean, I get that alien technology is a bit ahead of what muggles have even now, but what could he need from this thing that he couldn't get by using magic?"

"Well... _that's_ the part I can't figure out yet," Daniel admitted with a sigh before he brightened. "But, on the bright side, we know there's the possibility that Mitchell, Lupin and Tonks are still here; we just can't see _them_. If we assume that they can still see and hear everything going on around them- the way I could when I was in that state-, we _might_ be able to figure out a way to communicate with them."

"How?" Sam asked. "Since we haven't seen them yet, I think it's safe to say that the same rules that applied in that situation aren't going to be valid here; they must be operating on a different dimensional frequency to the one that you were trapped on back then..."

"True, but look at this," Daniel continued, indicating the device with a slight smile. "What does it look like to you at first?"

"A keyboard... without a visual interface?" Lee finished, indicating his laptop to elaborate on his example.

"Exactly," Daniel confirmed, nodding at the scientist. "However, just because _we_ can't see the visual interface..."

"Doesn't mean that _they_ can't..." Sam finished, nodding in understanding.

"Well, it stands to reason that Merlin would want the device to be interactive on both sides of the dimensional interface; it's probably just difficult to access at this end because he didn't want just _anybody_ using it..." Daniel continued, only for his voice to trail off as he saw the keys on the keyboard beginning to move as though someone was typing on it.

"Oh my God..." Hermione whispered, looking at the keyboard with a slight smile. "Is that...?"

"Them?" Daniel finished, nodding in confirmation as he looked slightly upwards. "Lupin, Tonks, Mitchell, if you can hear me, hit... well, let's call this button 'yes' and that one 'no'... are you all OK?"

After a moment's pause, the 'yes' button was apparently tapped.

"Finally, some _progress_..." Hermione sighed in relief, exchanging relieved if confused smiles with Fred and George; exactly _what_ was going on might still be confusing, but at least they were getting somewhere.

"OK," Daniel continued, "aside from the interactivity, is there anything else unusual on your end... possibly something connected to the device?"

The subsequent confirming tap on the 'yes' button prompted a relieved smile from Daniel; so far, everything seemed to be working out like he'd suspected.

"Is it some sort of display?" he asked, the 'yes' key being pressed once again.

"OK..." he continued, crossing his fingers about the question he was about to ask. "Can you read it?"

The delay between the question and the response was all that he needed to know even before the 'no' button was pressed.

"It's in Ancient, isn't it?" he said, only waiting long enough for the button to be pressed in confirmation before he pulled over a nearby stool and sat down in front of the device, a notebook in his hands as he looked intently at the object before him. "Now, you guys are going to have to help me translate what you see, but since we don't know what pressing buttons randomly will do we're going to have to stick with 'yes' and 'no' and just... do it one letter at a time-"

" _One letter at a time_?" Hermione said, glancing at her watch. "Harry, we've only got a few _hours_ left before the sun sets-"

"If you have a better idea, I'd like to hear it," Daniel retorted, his attention focused on the Ancient writing in his notebook as he placed it on the table beside the device, his finger pointing at the line of symbols representing the Ancient alphabet.

He might acknowledge Hermione's point, but he couldn't afford to think about that right now; right now, the best chance they had of saving Mitchell, Lupin and Tonks from being attacked by Lupin when he reverted to his werewolf state (Assuming that he _did_ revert, of course; there was a chance that Lupin wouldn't transform in the first place because he wasn't technically in the same dimension as the moon when it rose, but Daniel wasn't inclined to take that chance) was figuring out what this device _did_...

This whole situation was reminding him of one of the main reasons he'd left the magical world; the wand now up his sleeve might make his daily life easier, but it led him into some _remarkably_ complicated situations...


	32. Merlin's Secret

"OK," Daniel said, beginning the same process that they'd been working on since he'd deduced that those exposed to the device were still there, Tonks standing patiently over the 'yes' button as Lupin and Mitchell alternated their gazes between the book he was using to identify the Ancient symbols and the display above the machine, "first letter... next word... stop me when you see the right symbol..."

" _Great_..." Mitchell groaned, glancing over at his new friends in frustration. "No offence, but at this rate you'll have gone all furry before we're more than three sentences into this mess..."

"Trust me, I'm not happy about this either," Lupin muttered, staring intently at the writing displayed before them with an urgent stare, as though hoping he'd develop the ability to understand what was written there the more time he spent looking at it. "If only we could send him a message somehow..."

"Well, we're not going to deal with this mess by wasting time trying _other m_ ethods of talking to them," Mitchell commented, shaking his head as he hit the button in response to the indication of another correct letter. "I get that I don't know much about magic, but we're talking about something that would need to cross _dimensions_ ; I'm guessing that Merlin didn't set this up to make it _that_ easy to penetrate..."

* * *

  
"I've got it!" Lee said enthusiastically, sitting up from where he'd been studying his laptop screen intently to look at Daniel with a broad smile.

"What?" Daniel asked, turning away from the device to look at Lee, making a mental note to apologise to Mitchell and the others for stopping the translation like that once they were restored to normal (He definitely needed to work out a means of getting the translation finished without anyone else getting shifted into another dimension like Mitchell, Lupin and Tonks were if they were going to get everything down at this rate).

"I _think_ I've figured out what happened to Colonel Mitchell and the others," Lee explained. "Firstly, assuming that the fact that this device only activated when Mrs Lupin made contact with it, it seems like a good guess that it used her own natural... magic... to act as a power source- particularly if we assume that Merlin wouldn't have had access to the naquadah generators we've been using to power it ourselves since we moved it here; it still had a bit of a charge when we connected it up to the generators, even if it was only a bit-"

" _So_?" Hermione asked, looking impatiently at Lee with the same intent frustration Daniel remembered from when she was criticising him and Ron for taking too long to do their work.

"Well... nothing, really, I just thought that was something worth noting," Lee said, shrugging slightly apologetically before he resumed his more eager explanation. "Anyway, by analysing a reverse scan on all of the, uh, energy fluctuations that we've been recording from the device and putting them through a program designed to..."

"Anyway," Sam continued, stepping in to take over from her colleague before he could dig himself into a deeper hole, "the important thing is that, thanks to some readings I took earlier of Daniel's wand while isolating the energy frequencies generated when you access your magic- or at least when Daniel used his; I admit that I haven't managed to check other people and determine if any kind of magical baseline exists-, Bill and I _think_ we've managed to isolate the algorithmic frequency that was transmitted when... Tonks... to activate the device; if we can counteract the algorithm that should prompt the emissions being generated by the device to return to their normal frequencies-"

"In other words, you can get them back, right?" George asked, raising an impatient hand as he looked at Sam impatiently.

"Well... we think so, anyway," Sam said, nodding slightly at the Weasley twin in question.

"Just give me a sec..." Lee said, tapping a few keys as he studied his screen, Hermione and the Weasleys slightly backing away from the device even as Sam moved in closer to stand beside Daniel as he studied it intently. A blinding flash seemed to fill the room, and suddenly Mitchell, Lupin and Tonks were standing in front of the two members of SG-1.

"Remus..." Daniel said, smiling as he looked at the evidently anxious werewolf.

"Wh- _Harry_?" Lupin replied, looking at his best friend's son with a broad grin. "You... you can _see_ me?"

"Uh... Harry?" Hermione said, prompting Daniel to turn around and look at his old friend just in time to see her wave her hand through his right shoulder without any sign that she'd noticed what she'd just done. "Are you there?"

 _Oh no_... Daniel thought, horror spreading across his face as he looked over at Sam, whose hand was currently passing through the nearest desk as she looked at him in shock.

"Oh no..." Lupin said, looking apprehensively at his best friend's son as he glanced between them and the machine.

"Uh... Doctor Jackson?" Lee said after a moment's awkward silence as he took in what had just happened, the glares from Hermione and the Weasleys doing little to help his confidence, "if you can hear me, could you... press this button?"

"Well," Daniel said, sighing slightly as he turned his attention to the writing that was now visible on this side of the dimensional 'shift', "as long as I'm here, we might as well keep up with the translation; maybe we'll find something _this_ way that we were missing earlier..."

"Before we go any further," Lupin asked, raising an anxious hand as he looked over at the two new arrivals, "I don't suppose either of you have anything that we could use to render me unconscious before I transform?"

"Well, I have my wand..." Daniel answered, pulling the object in question out of its now-usual hiding-place in his sleeve, shifting it into his right hand as he looked slightly apprehensively at his friend. "But... are you sure that's the best way to deal with it? I mean, it's been a while since I studied werewolves, but-"

"Even if it doesn't put me down for the whole of my transformation, _any_ time it can buy for us would be welcome at this point!" Lupin said, staring urgently at his former student. "You _have_ to be ready to stun me, Harry; there isn't _time_ to-"

"We _have_ time," Daniel said, staring grimly at the werewolf before he turned his attention back to the object before them, trying to ignore Lee's evident discomfort as Hermione and the Weasley twins glared at him amid his protestations of fixing this latest incident while he continued to study the writing. "OK, from what I'm seeing here, this looks like it's a log of some kind; Merlin was conducting research on some kind of new invention..."

Staring reflectively at the device, Daniel reached out to touch the holographic display, prompting the writing to change to display a new sequence of Ancient writing.

"Whatever it was," Daniel said, continuing to tap the screen as he scanned the words before him, searching urgently for something that they could use, "it was something big... he went to great lengths to try to hide it... actually, this device was invented for the sole purpose of keeping his research a secret from..."

"What?" Tonks asked, looking in frustration at Daniel. "Seriously, who was he trying to keep this whole mess secret from?"

"His fellow Ascended beings," Daniel finished, looking up at the small group around him with a slightly stunned expression that was almost automatically mimicked by those who'd just heard what he said.

"Hold on; Merlin was _Ascended_?" Mitchell said, shaking his head as though trying to clear it from this latest confusing twist.

"Ascended?" Lupin repeated uncertainly, trying to make sure he understood what had just been revealed before he progressed any further. "As in... he reached a point where he learned to exist as pure energy... right?"

"Yeah, that's right..." Sam said, nodding briefly at Lupin in conformation before she looked back at Daniel. "But... if he was Ascended... he'd have to retake human form to perform his research. I-I just don't get it; what invention could have been so important that it would have led him to give up his Ascension?"

"A weapon," Daniel said grimly as he studied the information displayed above the device. "A weapon capable of destroying Ascended beings."

If the news that Merlin had once been one of the Ascended had shocked the group listening to Daniel's translation, this latest twist left everyone stunned.

* * *

  
"Back up a minute here for those of us who seem to have lost the plot; he developed a way to _kill_ the _Ascended_?" Mitchell said, staring at Daniel as though the archaeologist had just gone mad. "Why would he do that?"

"Well, according to this," Daniel said, scanning through the Ancient text before him, "Merlin believed that the Ori represented a significant threat to the safety of this galaxy… including the Ancients themselves, who refused to take any action to protect themselves against them."

"So... he just developed this weapon without worrying about what the other Ascended would think of him?" Tonks concluded.

"A bit like Professor Dumbledore, really," Lupin said, looking over at Daniel with a reflective smile. "Albus was never one to back away from the right thing even if there was an easier option..."

"Yeah..." Daniel said simply, avoiding the topic of the long-dead Hogwarts headmaster- a part of him would never stop wondering if things could have been different if Dumbledore had given him a bit more information or trusted Snape less than he seemed to have done; he might have made a new life for himself since then, but a part of him would always mourn Ginnyand Ron's deaths- as he turned back to the translation. "Apparently he completed his research in this other dimension to prevent the other Ancients from learning about it; from what I can make out here, it sounds like what Merlin devised was a means of generating an energy wave that essentially 'cancels out' or 'negates' the energy that comprises the Ascended on a galaxy-wide scale, but having completed the weapon here on Earth he then relocated it to..."

"Well," Sam smiled, finishing Daniel's assessment for him as six symbols appeared amid the rest of the writing that even the wizards could instantly translate, prompting the archaeologist to pause mid-sentence as he took in what was in front of them. "I don't need to know Ancient to understand _that_."

"A gate address to where he hid the weapon?" Tonks asked curiously.

"Bingo," Mitchell said, smiling at the woman in confirmation before he looked back at Daniel. "Anyway, not that all this hasn't been fascinating, but with time the way it is, maybe we should see about getting _out_ of this dimension before things get any hairier... and I _really_ wish I hadn't said that..."

"Oh, don't worry about it; Harry's father was always referring to my transformations as my 'furry little problem' when we were in public," Lupin said with a casual smile before he turned back to Daniel. "The important thing is, does what you've got there say _anything_ about getting us _back_ to our... proper... dimension?"

"Yeah, that's the right phrase, and to answer your question, I... _think_ so," Daniel said, trying to ignore Doctor Lee's muttered comments about adjusting the algorithms behind him as he stared intently at the device in front of them. "It's a bit of a long shot, but if I'm reading this correctly, I think we're close to the master control screen; if I can find the right button combination, I _think_ I can put us back in phase..."

"Could you hurry up?" Lupin asked, looking anxiously at his watch. "We're getting a _bit_ close to sunset for my liking..."

"Just... a... minute..." Daniel said, tapping urgently at the keys of the device in front of him, eyes flicking across the screen as he took in the available information on the screen before him, finally inputting the last sequence and triggering a bright flash of light just as Lee was about to enter further information on his laptop.

"You're back-!" Lee began with a broad grin, only for Lupin to suddenly tense up, his eyes flicking urgently at the rest of the people in the room as his head began to lengthen and hair began to spread across his hands.

"Oh no..." Hermione whispered, glancing at her watch as she realised what was happening. "He... it's nearly night..."

"We've _got_ to get him out of here!" Tonks yelled, grabbing her husband by the right arm as she looked urgently at Lee. "Where's the nearest empty room?"

"Wh-what?" Lee said, looking at the metamorphagus in confusion; evidently either news of what Lupin was hadn't spread through the whole base or he didn't quite get the implications of what was happening in front of him. "Uh... the room... next door on the left... should be free..."

"Right," Daniel said, taking Lupin's other arm as he and Tonks quickly hurrying the rapidly-transforming werewolf out of the lab and towards the indicated door, closely followed by Sam as she ran ahead of them to open the door.

"Sorry about this, Remus," Daniel said as he shoved his father's friend into the room, barely registering it as Lupin's nose and mouth began to extend outwards before the door was closed before him as he pulled out his wand, "but we're a bit pressed for time; _Colloportus_!"

"Collo-what?" Sam asked.

"Locking charm, basically," Daniel said, slipping his wand back into his sleeve as he looked back at Sam. "It should prevent Remus from accidentally opening the door while he's transformed in there; right now, without his potion, the only thing we can do is keep him isolated until the morning."

"Trust me, it's easier this way; even _with_ the potion he prefers to keep himself in his room at this time of the month," Tonks said, glancing over at Sam with a brief shrug. "It's complicated, but what can you do?"

"Yeah... I'm sure," Sam said, nodding uncertainly at the pink-haired younger woman before she turned back to Daniel. "Anyway, we'd better get on with things; if there's anything in what you just translated of Merlin's research, we need to get started fast."

Daniel couldn't argue with her there; Voldemort might be the more immediate threat, but if there was a way to take the Ori- easily the most powerful enemy they'd ever faced- out of the equation right now, then they had to find out more about it as soon as possible.

He just hoped that finding out about it was going to be the hardest part of this search; it seemed like the only time he'd really stopped since Voldemort came back into his life had been when he was in the infirmary...


	33. A New Mission

"So," Landry said, looking sceptically at Daniel after the small group that had been rendered intangible had finished their report on recent events, "you're telling me that Merlin was not only an _actual_ wizard, but was also a _former_ Ascended who retook human form to create a weapon that could destroy Ascended beings?"

"That's pretty much what we've been able to gather from the information provided by the device, anyway," Daniel confirmed with a nod. "Hermione said that she's going to see what she can find out about Merlin's history in the wizarding world to see if there's any further clues about where he might have left some of his secrets that I might not have access to here, but we're not holding out much hope; right now our best chance would seem to be to check out that gate address included in the available information as soon as possible and see what it has to offer-"

Further conversation was cut off as alarms began to blare around them, a quick glance at the window behind them confirming that the Stargate was being dialled from the other end.

The group sitting around the table didn't hesitate; getting to their feet, Daniel, Sam, Landry, Mitchell, and Tonks all ran down the stairs to the control room, where Harriman was already studying the computers and radios as the Stargate finished dialling and the Iris was closed.

"What's up?" Landry asked.

"Incoming wormhole from Tagalus," Harriman replied, looking over at Daniel. "A Jarrod Kane is requesting to be let through to talk to you about an urgent matter; he's on the radio."

Nodding in confirmation- while shooting a brief look at Tonks to assure her that he'd explain this latest turn of events later-, Daniel turned to face in the approximate direction of the control room's radio transmitter. "Jarrod, this is Daniel; what's wrong?"

" _Doctor Jackson_ ," a man's voice replied from the other end of the connection, " _I have very little time. I've gained access to the Stargate without my government's authorization. Please allow me to come through; I am alone and unarmed_."

A nod from Daniel was all the confirmation General Landry needed that the voice on the other end was telling the truth.

"Open the Iris," he said, Harriman automatically reaching over to activate the necessary controls to open the metallic shielding over the Stargate.

"OK, Jarrod," Daniel continued, "it's safe to come through."

With that, confirmation, he, Mitchell, Sam and Tonks turned around and walked out of the control room, quickly heading down to the gateroom to be greeted by the sight of a dark-haired man with a prominent forehead, dressed in a leather jacket and trousers carrying a bag and a long rod of some kind.

"Stand down," Mitchell said, waving the soldiers aiming their weapons at the Stargate to the side as the new arrival walked down the ramp.

"Doctor Jackson," the man said, looking in relief at the archaeologist.

"Jarrod," Daniel replied with a slight nod as he indicated his friends. "This is Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell, and Special Auror Tonks Lupin; you already know Sam."

"Tagalas..." Mitchell said, pausing reflectively for a moment as he looked at Daniel for confirmation. "Post-apocalyptic war and superpowers of deep seeded political differences; _that_ Jarrod Kane."

At Daniel's lack of contradiction of his assessment of the situation, Mitchell turned to nod at the other man. "Nice to meet you."

"Post-apocalyptic wars?" Tonks asked in confusion.

"Long story short, Kane here's from a planet that went from a state of cold war to _actual_ war after we accidentally inspired a local terrorist to trick them into firing missiles at each other," Mitchell explained briefly to Tonks.

"Your government stopped responding to our communications months ago," Daniel continued, looking slightly apologetic for Mitchell's slightly flippant description of Tagalas's situation as he spoke; even if Kane didn't seem that bothered about it, it couldn't be easy to hear his planet's recent history summed up in such a manner. "We assumed that you..."

"Completely destroyed each other?" Kane finished, looking grimly back at the archaeologist. "Not quite yet."

"I was going to say no longer wanted our help, but that'll do," Daniel admitted with an apologetic shrug.

"In any case, we're still there," Kane continued, his tone grim. "The Rand protectorate is still struggling to rebuild and defend itself from the Caledonian Federation."

"OK... what's so urgent?" Daniel asked uncertainly.

"Five months ago a man came through the Stargate," Kane explained. "He called himself a Prior of the Ori."

"Here we go..." Mitchell said, exchanging a grim glance with Sam as Tonks looked briefly uncomfortable; she might only know about the Ori from second-hand information, but that was still enough to make her uncomfortable at the implication that she might be about to have to deal with them.

"Yes, we're aware of the Priors and what they're preaching," Daniel said, once again pushing thoughts of Voldemort to the back of his mind; the way things were going right now, it looked like his old enemy was once again going to have to take a back seat to the latest Ori assault...

"The Prior wasn't just offering us religion; he offered us power," Kane continued. "In exchange for us embracing the Ori, he gave our government designs for a weapon that could be launched into orbit. A satellite capable of giving us total domination over the Caledonians."

"Oh," Sam said, out of a lack of anything else to say to a statement like that. "So, assuming that your people intend on building this weapon, how long before it's completed?"

"Twenty-four hours ago, a Caledonian military outpost was completely vaporized in a demonstration," Kane said, maintaining his neutral expression despite the grim nature of hte news he was now delivering. "The weapon is already operational."

"Ah," Daniel said, his eyes widening in understanding. "Well... _that_ isn't good..."

"Quite," Landry said, walking up behind the group, looking pointedly at Kane as he spoke, clearly fully aware of the implications of this latest revelation. "You can join us in the briefing room to fill us in on the situation in greater detail."

* * *

  
"How long until your government makes its next move?" Landry asked, SG-1 and the available 'SG-M' members- the magic-users were currently all-but-officially permanently assigned to work with SG-1 until the need for their services had ceased, so they were now regularly sharing briefings with the other team- sitting around the conference table as Kane filled them in on the current crisis.

"Our president has given their leader, Minister Casket, a deadline of five days," Kane explained, currently standing alongside a digital map of Rand and Caledonia to give the new arrivals a better idea of the stakes they were currently facing. "After that, if the Caledonians don't surrender to Rand occupation... they'll be destroyed."

"And the Prior instructed you to do this?" Daniel asked, the expression on his face making it clear even to those who only knew the basics of the current situation that he was sceptical about Rand's role in current events.

"Rand has been in disarray since the missile attacks last year," Kane explained. "Intelligence reports were filtering in that said the Caledonians were preparing a full-scale ground assault. They were going to invade and attempt to topple what was left of Rand once and for all."

"Caledonia wasn't interested in hearing anything from the Prior?" Lupin asked.

"The Prior asked our leaders if he could spread his word to the Caledonians as well..." Kane began uncomfortably.

"And they didn't want anything that you lot had already, eh?" Fred finished for Kane, exchanging a brief smile with his brother at Daniel's surprised stare. "Eh, business, religion, and politics; you get a decent feel for all three of them after spending time doing one for long enough."

"Well... you are correct, anyway," Kane said, nodding in confirmation at Fred and George even as his sceptical expression made it clear that he was puzzled at their reference. "President Nadal explained that to the Prior, and he said... anyone that did not accept Origin must be destroyed."

"Bit of a one-track mind these 'Priors' have, don' they?" Hagrid reflected.

"Trust me, you don't know the half of it..." Daniel muttered, nodding briefly at his friend before looking back at Kane and continuing in a louder but more neutral tone of voice. "I'm guessing it was also the Prior that convinced your people that having a relationship with _us_ was no longer necessary...?"

"It was already clear your government wasn't going to offer us the type of weapons and technology this prior was offering us," Kane said, his gaze shifting away from Daniel as he spoke, clearly uncomfortable about the current admission. "You see, we weren't just suffering defeat at the hands of the Caledonians; we were on the verge of collapsing as a nation..."

He shook his head in frustration at himself as he sat down in the chair next to Daniel. "But now, after what you told me about these Oris and their Priors... I fear that may have been a better way to go."

"We appreciate your situation, Mr Kane," Landry said, nodding briefly at the new arrival in acknowledgement of the risks he'd taken, "but I'm still unclear on what you want us to do about it."

In response, Kane reached over and picked up the long rod he'd been carrying when he walked through the Stargate.

"These are earlier schematics of the weapon," he explained, pushing the rod into the centre of the table. "Unfortunately, they're not complete; the Prior gave us step by step instructions in stages..."

"Making sure he kept you under his thumb," Mitchell concluded, Sam taking the plans out of their container as she began to study them.

"He said it was so he could make sure each stage was completed properly before we moved on to the next," Kane clarified. "It was the best I could under the circumstances; access became restricted soon after some of us in government voiced our disapproval about building the weapon, particularly when it began to incite further dissent from Caledonia..."

"Uh... righ'," Hagrid said, nodding slightly uncertainly at Kane. "So... yer want us ter destroy this?"

"It's the only chance we have to stop things before they go too far," Kane confirmed.

"Just to be clear," Mitchell said, looking slightly uncertainly at Kane, "you're doing this to save Caledonians? You don't hate them for bombing your country and killing some of your people?"

"I do," Kane admitted with a grim nod. "But I refuse to see any more lives, be they Rand or Caledonian, senselessly lost due to archaic prejudices of religious extremists. This _has_ to stop."

Nodding thoughtfully as he listened to Kane's response, Landry seemed to come to a decision.

"Thank you for speaking with us, Mr Kane," he said, as he indicated the door to his office. "If you would wait in there for a moment, SG-1 and I need to consider what you've told us."

"Of course," Kane said, nodding in an understanding that Daniel and the rest of 'SG-M' in particular wished wasn't so obviously natural to him; even with the courage he must have possessed to carry out his original defiance of coming to them in the first place, it was clear that Kane was too used to the idea of people keeping secrets from him, even if their motives for doing so differed from those who'd kept the secrets from him on his home planet.

"So," Landry said, as Kane shut the door to the office- all files were regularly kept locked up when not in use, and there was nothing in there that Kane could use for any kind of nefarious purpose anyway-, "what should we do?"

"Well, I'd like to point out that a lot of this is actually our fault," Daniel pointed out. "There wouldn't have been a war on Tagalus if we'd just not gone there in the first place."

"Huh?" Hagrid asked, looking at his old friend in surprise.

"Basically," Daniel explained, looking around to address the wizards as he spoke, "at the time we first arrived there- our first visit was only last year, actually-, Tagalus was stuck in the middle of a 1950s-esque cold war between the Rand Protectorate and the Caledonian Federation, but there was also a third group of religious fundamentalists active on the planet at the time who believed that the ancient gods who created their world would return and reward their faith. They'd been a fairly small group at first, but when our arrival proved that the fundamentalists were actually correct- even if they weren't right about the _nature_ of the gods-, it prompted their leader to arrange to trigger a nuclear missile launch on both sides."

"Ah," George said simply, clearly disinclined to even think about making one of his and Fred's usual jokes in the face of such news.

"An entire war happened just because you went to the planet..." Lupin muttered, shaking his head grimly. "No _wonder_ you're concerned about them..."

"General O'Neill probably said it best," Mitchell said with a shrug. "The minute we step through the gates we're sticking our collective noses where they don't belong."

"It's not like anyone could have _known_ that would happen when you went there..." Tonks said uncertainly.

"It doesn't stop us _feeling_ responsible," Sam said in response to that comment, before she turned back to look at the rest of her team. "At least now we know why they stopped accepting our offer to help them rebuild; they made contact with the Prior."

"And this satellite thing takes it to a whole new level," Mitchell added grimly. "The Ori have gone and started _arming_ their followers..."

"Who says they won't eventually help them build ships capable of attacking other planets?" Sam pointed out.

"In other words, stop them now and you don't have to worry about stopping them later when they try something bigger?" Tonks asked, looking between the SG-1 members with a slight smile. "Sounds like a plan..."

"Hold on a minute," Landry said, turning to look pointedly at Tonks. "Ms Lupin, as much as we have appreciated your assistance in attempting to track Voldemort and the Death Eaters, this current situation has nothing to do with you all; you're under no obligation to-"

"Harry has an obligation, General Landry," Lupin interjected, his stare looking resolutely at the older man. "That's enough for me."

"I'm sorry, but you do realise that, short of just flying in there to blow it up, we don't actually have any kind of _plan_ for this situation?" Daniel interjected, looking pointedly between the others.

"Unless you've got a better idea, Doctor Jackson-" Landry began.

"I have _another_ idea, anyway," Daniel replied. "All Tagalans, both Rand and Caledonian alike, deserve to know the truth. If we tell them what we know, who the Ori really are, they might be convinced to dismantle this weapon themselves."

For a moment, the rest of the group looked between each other, until Lupin turned to look at Daniel.

"You're actually suggesting a plan that _doesn't_ feature us just diving in there?" he asked, smiling slightly at his old student. "The time was that you favoured a direct approach over talking..."

The grim expression on Daniel's face at that comment prompted Lupin to stay quiet; evidently the boy who was the closest thing he'd ever had to a nephew wasn't interested in discussing that topic.

"Let's just say that the way things turned out back then left me questioning the way I did things before," Daniel said simply; even those who hadn't experienced the events he was indirectly referring to knew enough to stop that avenue of discussion before it went any further

"Anyway," Sam said, trying to get the conversation to a less personally difficult topic even as she made a note to try and talk with Daniel later- he might have a right to feel guilty if she was accurately remembering the stories he'd told them about his life as Harry, but that didn't mean he should still be holding on to it-, "do you think they'll even listen?"

"Let's just propose it to Kane... and see if Rand will hear us out," Daniel responded, shrugging slightly as he drew stares from the rest of the group. "It's our best chance to end things without getting into a fight that could make things worse."

After a moment's hesitation, Landry nodded.

"All right," he said, looking over at the archaeologist with a grim nod before he turned to Sam. "In the meantime, Colonel Carter, see what you can figure out about that satellite weapon based on the plans Mr Kane provided for us; if there's a weakness that we can exploit, I want to know about it as soon as possible."


	34. Division on Tegalus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I omitted the scenes with Sam going over the plans of the weapon and Daniel talking with Kane in the commissary because nothing really changed from the original canon in there- Sam noted the weapon's apparent weakness, Kane mentioned that his wife was dead; straightforward stuff, really- and I thought it would be more interesting to get on to what was different here (Particularly when the differences include a return appearance from the _real_ villains here)...

In a darkened room in the main command centre of the Caledonian Protectorate, a figure clad in dark robes sat in the central chair with a casual smirk as she contemplated the turn that events had taken since her lord had returned to her.

Reclaiming the territories that he had possessed in his prior existence had not been an easy task, to say the least- particularly when so many of them may have been claimed by others since he passed on from this realm to return to Earth-, but they had managed to find aerial craft that they could use to travel to certain locations where Hestia had been unable to clarify their current status among her lord's 'rivals' (Not that she had any doubt that her lord could defeat them if he wanted to), to avoid any possible dangers they might face by using the 'Chappa'ai' instead.

How her fellow surveyors had faired she didn't know, but it wasn't that much of a concern for her; all that mattered was that, when she had arrived at her current location, she had found a world populated by a well-developed muggle civilisation that had nevertheless descended into an unstable political situation that her master could easily exploit.

Actually, the fact that the world's political conflicts had escalated into a war that had left both sides almost completely decimated over a year ago only added to her satisfaction at finding her way here; even without any actual magic available to them, the muggles had caused an impressive amount of damage, and there were some interesting rumours about what had happened on this world since...

She paused for a moment, her train of thought momentarily cut off as one of the amulets her master had given her began to glow, prompting her to quickly reflect on the explanation her master had given her regarding the purpose of the amulet before her. The charms that controlled it were naturally too complex for her to understand given her master's new power, but it was apparently charmed to alert her if another magical presence visited the same location where she was currently located.

With that in mind, she raised her wand and quickly cast a brief charm that her Lord had perfected for them following his restoration and the subsequent 'reunion' with Potter and his new muggle allies. According to her lord, while the amulet would alert her and her fellow Death Eaters to the presence of other witches and wizards on the worlds they visited, the charm would grant the user temporary access to 'sixth sense'- as mudbloods referred to the idea of detecting something that you would be unaware of with the usual five senses- that allowed them to sense the magic in others and thus gain an idea of how powerful the witch or wizard was, as well as a sense of their identity.

It might be relatively limited in its use when they were on Earth and surrounded by other wizards, but out in these new worlds that had apparently never learned to access their magic, it was one of the more effective ways of determining the threat the locals could pose to them...

Then she took in the 'sight' generated by the spell- it required her mind to be slightly modified to accommodate the new sense, so she interpreted it as a form of visual stimuli-, and her eyes widened in satisfaction.

" _Potter_..." she whispered, her voice low as she smiled at the presence of the distinctive magical signature of her lord's greatest enemy.

Identifying individual magical signatures might be difficult in an area populated by several witches and wizards, but with such a limited number of magic-users able to access this level of existence, possible candidates for a magical power level on this scale were limited.

Just like her lord, Potter wouldn't want to open up the possibilities afforded to him by the discovery of these new levels of existence to the rest of the wizarding world, which meant that only he could be the source of this signature; Potter might be foolish, but he was still powerful even without the opportunities offered by their new way of life.

It might not exactly be convenient, but on the other hand- particularly if the spy network the Protectorate had established among the Confederation was as efficient as she had heard it was-, it _did_ create some potential for her to eliminate a particular threat to her lord's further expansion.

As she turned to study the jar he had provided for her earlier, she had to admit, even without the promise of the additional knowledge and power she would gain as a result, the prospect of becoming the vessel for a god _was_ an interesting idea...

* * *

  
As he sat in the cells that the Rand 'delegation' had taken him and Kane to almost as soon as they'd arrived, Daniel was grateful that he'd managed to persuade his old friends not to come with him; as much as he would have welcomed their assistance in this situation, the last thing he wanted was for them to get captured along with him. As long as it was just him and Jared here, he still had a chance to talk his way out of this, but with any more people in here there was just too much of a chance for things to get unpleasant (He shuddered at what might have happened if the twins had come along; they'd _never_ have been willing to stay here and would probably have caused an even greater diplomatic incident if they'd tried to escape).

He'd known that things weren't exactly going to be pleasant here when he'd decided to go on this trip- the natural human need to find a reason in disaster was definitely something that he'd learned long ago not to underestimate, and the Priors' message would have been welcome to the Rand Protectorate in that regard-, but he still hadn't expected that he'd get thrown in a cell this quickly; he hadn't even had the time to say a _thing_ about the Priors or the weapon, despite the message they'd received apparently offering him the chance to do so.

_Always the same story_ , he reflected grimly to himself. _People get set in their ways and ideas, and the first thing they do is throw anyone who doesn't share those ideas in prison where they can't voice them_...

He could probably just apparate out of the cell, of course, but he'd always been reluctant to do something like that unless he ever reached a point where he was convinced he had no other choice. Putting aside the fact that his apparation skills had been limited even before he'd spent the better part of two decades aware from the wizarding world, disappearing from a cell without leaving any trace of how he had escaped ran the risk of attracting more attention to himself- and, by extension, Earth- than he was willing to risk.

So far, as far as he knew, none of the Priors out there had encountered any wizards yet, which meant that, with Voldemort out in the galaxy, he'd introduced an additional potential 'X-factor' to the conflict with the Ori that Daniel couldn't afford for their newest enemies to discover until they were ready to fully exploit it (To say nothing of establishing whether the Ministry of Magic _wanted_ to remain involved with the Stargate Program after the Death Eaters had been recaptured).

There might not be a Prior here at the moment, but he didn't want to try anything that might give away that he was more than an ordinary human until he was _certain_ he had to do so.

All he had to do now was hope that the _Prometheus_ could get here in time to take out that satellite before anyone in Rand did something that no amount of negotiation would manage to clear up. Sam had definitely seemed fairly confident that the satellite depicted in the plans wouldn't be much use against _Prometheus_ in a straight fight- according to her the satellite's defences were relatively minimal and it took a while to charge up a shot each time it was used-, but that still left them with the trouble of getting here in the first place.

"This isn't exactly what I had in mind," he said, glancing over at Jared where the other man sat in the cell next to his own.

"What happens if your people don't hear from us?" Jared asked, looking straight ahead of himself as he spoke, as though unwilling to allow himself to see Daniel's response.

"I told them to proceed with destroying the weapon," Daniel replied, grimly hoping that his friends would agree to that; he somehow doubted that the Weasleys or Lupin would let the satellite get destroyed without at least _attempting_ to rescue him...

Before he could follow that line of thought further, the sound of a thick door being opened reached their ears. Getting to their feet, Daniel and Jared walked up to the locked doors of their cells as a man with weight approaching 'fat' came down the corridor, dressed in a three-quarter-length black coat and accompanied by two guards.

"President Nadal," Jared said.

"Senator Kane," Nadal replied, taking up position in front of their cells, his guards on either side of him.

"This is Doctor Daniel Jackson," Jared began.

"I know who he is," Nadal said, a slight sneer in his voice as though offended at the idea that he wouldn't possess such information on his own.

"I'm here representing Earth on a diplomatic mission," Daniel began to explain.

"I'm here to officially inform you, Jared Kane," Nadal said, turning away from Daniel as though he hadn't even spoken in the first place, "you are under arrest for treason."

"Excuse me?" Daniel said, looking incredulously at the minister through his cell bars. "You allowed us to come here under false pretences-!"

"Doctor Daniel Jackson," Nadal continued, turning to him with that frustrating indifference to things he didn't want to hear that almost every politician Daniel had ever met- either as Harry or as Daniel- seemed to have taken classes in, "your government has knowingly harboured a felon; as well, it seems they are in possession of top secret documents vital to the security of this country. As of now, you are both considered enemies of the state, and will be detained until trial can be set."

With that, he turned around and walked out of the cells, leaving Daniel and Jared to look at each other in an exchange of regret.

There were times when Daniel _really_ hated politics; it helped keep things coordinated, but so many people got so blinkered by their own views on things that they just wouldn't allow themselves to even _think_ that someone else could have a good idea about the current situation if it was a different one from their own.

Even as a part of him acknowledged the unlikelihood of it happening, he just hoped that his wizarding friends had decided not to come along with the rest of SG-1; the last thing he needed was to worry about what the twins would do with the _Prometheus_ while he was in this position...

* * *

  
"Wow- _eeee_!" Fred said, staring in awe at the view outside the _Prometheus_ 's windows as they flew through what Colonel Carter had called 'subspace'. "That's just... _wow_!"

"Yeah, I know," Mitchell said with a nod as he sat down beside the twins; with the ship still _en route_ to Tegalus, there wasn't much for the wizards to do but sit around and wait until they got there. Landry had objected to their presence at first, but after 'SG-M' had made it clear that they weren't going to be left behind- and Hermione had confirmed that Kingsley could handle the situation back in Britain-, he'd agreed to allow Hermione, Tonks and the twins to accompany _Prometheus_ ; it had been considered impractical to take Hagrid given that he wouldn't have been able to comfortably fit in any of the ship's rooms or corridors, and it was widely agreed that this wasn't the time to test how werewolves would react to space travel. "Nice view, isn't it?"

"Forget the view; we're looking at something that I don't think _any_ wizard thought we'd ever see!" George said, looking eagerly over at the lieutenant colonel. "Seriously, our dad's still trying to figure out how planes work; he'd probably give his right _arm_ to see this thing..."

"Oh yeah... Arthur Weasley, right?" Mitchell said, smiling as he recalled Daniel's stories of his life in the wizarding world. "Yeah, Jackson told us about him; sounds like quite a character."

"Yeah, he is..." Fred began, before his expression fell slightly as he and George looked at each other, their expressions surprisingly solemn for the two even given Mitchell's own limited experience of them.

"What?" Mitchell asked, looking between the two. "Something wrong?"

"Just... Dad," George answered, swallowing slightly as he looked back at Mitchell. "Ever since the war ended, he... he lost a lot of his spark, really."

"Still keen on muggle stuff, don't get me wrong, but it's like... he's just _existing_ at this point rather than anything else," Fred said grimly. "Ginny might have been more Mum's favourite than Dad's- only girl of seven and all that; you'd pretty much _expect_ Mum to be closer to Ginny than the rest of us-, but she was still... pretty special to him, and add in losing Ron and Harry like that..."

He sighed, looking briefly down at the table before he looked back at Mitchell. "Took a long time for him to feel the need to do much of anything, really; Hermione and the rest of the Order were able to arrange for a few extra people to be transferred to his department to pick up the slack, but even after he started work it just wasn't the same..."

"Yeah... I know the feeling," Mitchell said, nodding slightly at the twins. "My dad was in an accident when I was a kid; had to have both his legs amputated below the knee-"

"Hold on; _amputated_?" George repeated, looking at Mitchell in shock. "As in... doesn't that mean muggle doctors cut your limbs off?"

"When they're certain the damage is too severe for the patient to survive with the limbs still attached, yeah," Mitchell replied. "He got prosthetics- fake limbs- in their place, and eventually got the hang of living without them, but even after all these years there's still a part of him that wants to get back what he was..."

"Damn..." Fred said, his voice low as he looked sympathetically at their new friend. "I mean, at least we've always been able to _hope_ that Dad would get back to normal..."

"And... your mother?" Mitchell asked uncertainly; recalling Daniel's tales of the hot-tempered but warm-hearted woman who'd apparently virtually treated him as her own son for most of his six years at Hogwarts, he felt almost ashamed at the realisation that none of them had asked for more details about the rest of the Weasleys (Then again, it wasn't like Jackson was normally that talkative about his past; they'd probably never have even learned about the _fake_ history if it hadn't been for that 'Gamekeeper' thing in the program's first year).

"Spends a bit of her free time- not that she ever had that much of it- teaching the grandkids how to fight before they have to go to Hogwarts," George said, looking sadly at Mitchell. "Still knows how to go easy on them and let them have fun, of course, but she's always showing 'em a few tricks to use in a duel when she can; says that she... doesn't want to lose any more kids in case another war comes up."

Mitchell could understand that easily enough, even if he couldn't help but think it was a bit sad; a grandmother shouldn't _have_ to worry about whether or not her grandchildren were going to survive...

"Cam?" Sam's voice said, breaking his bleak train of thought, Mitchell looking up to see his old friend coming towards him from the mess hall doors.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"We'll be reaching Tangalus in a few minutes," Sam said, looking over at the twins as she spoke. "Colonel Pendergast thought that you should be on the bridge; if things... don't go well, it would probably be best if we all knew what we needed to be preparing to deal with."

"Gotcha," Fred said, smiling as he and his brother stood up, followed by Mitchell. "Let's go and get Harry out of whatever trouble he's in now, shall we?"

"Just like the old days, isn't it?" George said, looking back at Fred with a smile that seemed to fade almost as quickly as it had appeared; the slight reflective expressions on their faces made it clear that they were remembering the people who _couldn't_ be here right now.

* * *

  
"I guess we can assume any trial will be rigged?" Daniel asked as he leant against the bars of his cell, his mind going over any solution to the current dilemma that didn't just feature him apparating out of here and potentially causing even more trouble as far as Tegalus's relationship with Earth went.

"Honestly, we'll be lucky to get that far," Jared replied after a moment's pause. "President Nadal has been paranoid about Caledonian spies for some time now; because I betrayed him this way, he… may assume I'm also part of that network."

"Great..." Daniel muttered, his already-low hopes of getting out of the current mess legally fell even lower. He hadn't felt this resigned to the outcome of a court procedure since Fudge and Umbridge had put him on trial for under-age magic before his fifth year, and back then he'd had the bonus that a part of him actually _wanted_ to lose the trial as it might have allowed him to stay with Sirius...

"I don't suppose your country has any laws against torture?" he asked, trying to find something encouraging to focus on.

"No," Jared replied.

Before Daniel could do much more than contemplate apparition once again, the sound of a door opening reached their ears, followed by a dark-skinned man with a neatly-trimmed beard and slightly excessive weight than was necessary walked into Kane's cell, smiling at him in a slightly mocking manner.

"I applaud your courage, Kane," the new arrival said, even as Kane remained sitting rather than standing up to acknowledge his guest.

"Commander Pernaux, Doctor Jackson," Jared said by way of explanation. "Doctor Jackson-"

"Yeah, I got it," Daniel said, now standing against the bars separating his cage from Kane's.

"What I don't understand is why you came back," Pernaux said, as though the introductions had never taken place.

"Doctor Jackson and I felt there were some things the Rand people needed to know," Jared said.

"The only thing I need to know," Pernaux said, his smile fading as he walked forward a couple of paces to stand more directly above Kane, "are the names of those among us who are working for the Caledonians."

"Just because I went to Earth for help doesn't mean I've also given information to the Caledonians or know who might have," Jared said, staring ahead of himself without looking up to address the other man.

"Earth is responsible for our current state of affairs," Pernaux said bluntly (Daniel wished he wouldn't phrase it like that; he'd acknowledged long ago that Earth's arrival on Tegalus had provided Soren with all the incentive he needed to launch the attack, but that didn't mean he had to like it when people rubbed his face in it; it wasn't like they'd done it on _purpose_ ). "Turning to them is the act of a desperate man, Kane."

"Kane 'turned to us' in the hopes of preventing you from making a catastrophic mistake," Daniel said, deciding that he should take this opportunity to get a word in before things went any further. "The Priors are not telling you everything about the Ori; you need to hear me out before you use that weapon to wipe out the Caledonians."

"So you admit you sympathise with Caledonia," Pernaux said, turning to face him.

"That's not what he's saying," Kane said, looking up at Pernaux with an exasperated glare.

"How the next few days unfold is entirely up to you," Pernaux said, his casual dismissal of Kane's words leaving the other man to simply role his eyes in frustration at the other's man's stubbornness. "But until I find out who else is working with you…I guarantee neither of you will know a moment's peace."

Daniel wasn't sure if that statement was made more or less effective when Pernaux subsequently turned around and walked out of the cell, leaving him and Kane alone once again; anticipating torture definitely wasn't an experience he was ever keen on having to deal with, but waiting for something to happen wasn't _that_ bad...

_Pop_!

Daniel's eyes widened in horror, his train of thought automatically cut short as his ears registered a sound he hadn't heard for ages.

_No_... he thought, turning around to face the direction that the sound had come from, praying that he was wrong even as he knew that he wasn't.

"Ah, _there_ you are!" Bellatrix Lestrange said, looking at Daniel's cell with the same insane gleam he'd first seen in her eyes in the Department of Mysteries so many years ago as she killed his godfather-

Then his ears registered the tone she'd spoken in, and the flash of gold in her eyes was all he needed to confirm his worst fears.

_As if_ one _Goa'uld with magic wasn't bad enough_... he thought to himself grimly.

"Hestia?" he asked uncertainly, uncertain if he wanted his suspicions to be confirmed more than he wanted them proven wrong.

"Ex _act_ ly!" the former Death Eater said, her grin a broad, disturbing smirk as she aimed her wand at the man who had once been Harry Potter, her eyes flashing with the traditional gold of the Goa'uld. "You have allowed a man to ascend to the level of a God... and now I have the power to make you _pay_ for that!"


	35. Round Three: Hestia VS SG-1/SG-M

Daniel couldn't even afford to give himself a moment's pause; if he took too long to think about this, all he'd accomplish was to get himself killed.

Having a Death Eater here at a time like this would have been bad enough, but adding in Hestia's current control of Bellatrix's body and he was definitely _not_ interested in sticking around longer than he had to.

He'd hoped that he wouldn't have to do this- convincing people that you were trying to help them wasn't something that they tended to believe after you broke out of prison, even if the reason you were in there in the first place was fairly flimsy-, but if it was a choice between creating a good impression with their captors and getting killed by a terrifying blend of two of his greatest nightmares, it really wasn't a contest.

"Hold on!" he yelled, sticking one hand through the cage to grab Jared by the arm before he focused desperately on one of the more rarely-used aspects of his magic- even with Hermione and the others back in his life he hadn't managed to practise that well-, willing himself to hold everything together and praying he remembered the location he wanted clearly enough...

* * *

  
After the usual disconcerting feeling of being sucked down a massive straw had passed, Daniel opened his eyes to find himself standing in Jared and Leda's old house on the outskirts of the city- the first safe location he could think of that Hestia might not be able to sense immediately; it would definitely be abandoned by this point and it was far enough away to escape the attention of Rand's leaders-, checking that his wand was still secure in his sleeve before he turned to look at the now-stunned Jared.

"OK," he said, raising his hands in an attempt to placate his friend, "I know that what I just did was... unexpected, but-"

"Did... did we just... teleport?" Jared asked, looking at Daniel as though he wasn't certain whether he should start to panic or collapse in relief.

"Well... basically, yeah," Daniel replied.

"And... that woman?" Jared asked, evidently trying to take this latest twist on the situation on a step-by-step basis to stop himself from panicking. "Who was she?"

"Essentially?" Daniel replied. "She's a Goa'uld who's using the body of an old enemy of mine as a host-"

"And... she can do... what we just did?" Jared continued, waving a hand uncertainly between him and Daniel. "I mean, she just... _appeared_..."

"Yes, she can teleport, among other things, just like I can, and before you ask, I never used those particular abilities when I was here before because..." Daniel began, pausing for a moment to contemplate lying before he concluded that he was too committed to his current path of telling the truth to back out now. "Because I'd walked away from the part of my life involving these abilities years before I joined the Stargate program back on Earth for... various reasons; recent events just meant that I... had to go back to the way I'd been before."

"And... that woman is connected to... whatever happened to you back then?" Jared asked, his expression making it clear to Daniel that his already-uncertain ally was having significant doubts about the value in continuing this conversation given the negative aspects he'd heard so far.

"Well, _basically_ ; she was one of the people involved in some... stuff... that happened when I was younger..." Daniel said, his voice trailing off as he looked at Jared, whose expression had reached a point that suggested to Daniel that Jared would have tried to attack him if it had been anyone else saying this. "Look, I know how this might look, but trust me, I had _no_ idea Bellatrix was going to be here, and I had even _less_ of an idea that she was going to be possessed by a Goa'uld; I'm as shocked about this as you are. Right now, our main objective has to be-"

* * *

  
"Hey, Jackson," Mitchell's voice suddenly said, Daniel's original sentence cut short as he found himself and Jared standing on the bridge of the _Prometheus_ , his friends looking at him in evident relief as the white light that had momentarily filled his vision faded to reveal his new location.

" _Harry_!" Hermione's voice said, before Daniel found himself with a faceful of brown hair as the Minister of Magic gave him a tight hug, Jared only able to look at their surroundings in shock at his second teleportation experience in almost as many minutes. " _You're OK_!"

"Uh... hi," Daniel said, patting Hermione awkwardly on her back as he looked around at the others; he might have gone through a couple of drastic upheavals in the last few minutes, but at least these ones were pleasant. "How...?"

"Well, when we tried and failed to beam up your locator beacon, Tonks here had the idea of using some of the tracking charms her better half developed for that map of his," Fred explained, smiling slightly at Daniel as he indicated the metamorphagus. "Hermione and Sammy managed to modify the charms to work with this thing's... senses?"

"Sens _ors_ ," Sam said, turning to glare slightly at Fred. "And for future reference, _don't_ call me 'Sammy'."

"Check," Fred said, nodding anxiously at the pointed stare the astrophysicist was giving him before he continued. "Anyway, she modified this thing's sens _ors_ to draw on the energy generated by our magic- based on some tests she'd done earlier, apparently- and was able to use that to work out where you were on the planet based on those same... cans..., and we got you and the other guy up here; if you didn't have your beacon, odds were good that you were in trouble, so anyone you were standing that close to was probably a friend."

"Actually, they're called scans, Fred, but apart from that you've got the essential details correct," Sam clarified, shaking her head in slightly amused exasperation (Daniel had to wonder how much of Fred's mistakes were deliberate and how much was him just being amusing). "It won't work for longer than a few moments at a time- given what you said about technology being unable to work at Hogwarts due to the high concentrations of magic in that area I'm reluctant to use it as a power source for longer than I have to-, but after we had to adapt _Daedalus_ to draw on power from a ZPM when it first went to Atlantis, modifying a few systems to use magic as a power source is relatively simple by comparison."

"Magic?" Jared repeated, looking at the group incredulously. "Now there's actual _magic_...?"

"Just a few of us who've... mastered the ability to manipulate the natural world in a manner that others can't; it's a matter of evolution rather than mysticism," Daniel said, hoping that the explanation would be enough to satisfy Jared; giving his friend too much too fast wouldn't help anything (And it wasn't like that explanation was even a total lie; now that he was once again back in the thick of a magic-related crisis, he _did_ have some interesting ideas about how magic could exist even after everything he'd seen of the Goa'uld and the Ancients). "Anyway, the important thing is that we've got a chance to stop Hestia before she can do anything else-"

"Hold on; Hestia's down there?" Mitchell asked, looking at Daniel in surprise. "I thought it was just the Ori?"

"I think she only got there recently- it's possible that she was one of the gods responsible for relocating the human population of Tegalus; it's not like their records ever specifically named who was behind their presence here-, but that's not important right now," Daniel said, shaking his head resolutely as he looked at his friends. "What _matters_ is that she's taken Bellatrix as a new host, and if we don't-"

" _Bellatrix_?" Hermione interjected, her eyes widening in horror at the news. "Bellatrix _Lestrange_?"

"Remind me; that's the woman who tortured a couple of people into insanity because they _might_ have known where her boss went after an incident which every bit of available information indicated had killed him, right?" Mitchell asked.

"Basically, yes," Hermione confirmed.

" _Damn_..." Mitchell groaned, rolling his eyes as he exchanged glances with Teal'c and Sam. "Don't suppose there's any indication about what becoming a Goa'uld host would do to someone who was insane before it got to them?"

"Not immediately, anyway," Sam replied apologetically. "If the reason for the insanity was simply physical brain damage caused by an accident, it's possible that they'd be able to cure the host and stabilise their condition, but since nobody's been able to precisely determine what drove Bellatrix mad in the first place, coupled with the fact that Hestia would have been using a sarcophagus for centuries if she's meant to be one of the original six Greek pantheon, it's more likely that..."

"She'll go even _more_ whacko on us, huh?" Mitchell said, shaking his head grimly as he looked over at Daniel. "Well, guess that deals with any questions about whether or not we get involved in things any more, huh?"

"Correct," Daniel said, nodding in confirmation at his friend before he looked over at the rest of the group. "We need to move quickly; Hestia didn't strike me as interested in waiting for us to get down there, and if she makes herself known to any remnants of Soren's old group, things could get even _more_ difficult."

"Doctor Jackson?" Colonel Pendergast said, looking uncertainly over at the archaeologist. "Does this mean that any attacks on the satellite should be suspended?"

"With everything else going on down there, I don't think we should try anything that might discourage the Tagalens from listening to us," Daniel replied. "If we can take care of Hestia, we can pay more attention to the issue of the satellite; right now, the satellite isn't an immediate threat, but Hestia's _definitely_ unstable."

"I... have to agree with that," Jared put in, looking slightly awkwardly between the other people on the bridge. "I mean, I admit that I don't understand the full details of who this 'Bellatrix' is, but the satellite isn't going to be used again for another day or two according to everything I heard, but she's a complete unknown with no way of knowing what she'll do next..."

"In other words, we should focus on her right now while she's still sorting out her plans and deal with the satellite after she's out of the picture?" Fred asked, drawing his wand and smiling at the Tagalen native. "Sounds like a plan-"

"Sorry, Fred; you're _not_ going down now," Tonks said, looking resolutely at the Weasley twins. "Bellatrix was dangerous enough when she was normal- well, as normal as a total lunatic can be, anyway-; if we add a centuries-old alien snake with a god complex to the list of reasons we have to be worried about her, I'm not sending anything less than a fully-trained professional down there, and I think we can all agree that combat isn't your _speciality_."

"So, I take it that means you and me?" Hermione asked, drawing her own wand with a smile at the Metamorphagus.

"And Teal'c and I," Daniel said, the resolute expression on his face halting Hermione's initial response even before Daniel continued. "Look, as much as Hestia might be using Bellatrix's body now, we can't forget that she was a Goa'uld first and she'll probably be relying on what _she_ knows more than what Bellatrix knows; Teal'c knows the Goa'uld better than any of us, and given that Bellatrix seemed fairly interested in attacking me it's possible that my presence could keep her focused on me enough for the rest of you-"

"Daniel, if you're thinking about using yourself as _bait_ -" Sam began, walking over to stand in front of her friend with an intense glare on her face.

"I'm not going to _let_ her attack me, Sam; I just meant that I need to be down there because I'm the only person Bellatrix and Hestia are _both_ going to want dead," Daniel clarified. "Bellatrix already hates me for my role in Voldemort's previous deaths; combined with what Hestia said when she appeared in my cell- she doesn't appear happy about the fact that I basically gave Voldemort a chance to become a Goa'uld-, and I think it's safe to say that she isn't a particular fan of mine either."

After a moment of frustrated staring at her friend, Sam sighed.

" _Fine_..." she said grimly, her eyes narrowing as she looked at him. "Just... be careful, OK?"

"When we've still got to sort out the satellite issue?" Daniel replied with a smile that was almost overly casual for the subject he was discussing. "Trust me; I'm not going to do _anything_ that could jeopardise our chance to sort that problem out..."

"Actually," Hermione said, smiling as she looked up from the computer screens she'd been studying, the grin on her face the same one Daniel remembered seeing whenever she had a particular idea, "as long as we're on that topic, I _do_ have an idea that might allow us to solve both of our current problems at once..."

* * *

  
As he walked uncertainly around some of the still-abandoned streets of Rand's capital- reconstruction in this area didn't seem to have progressed much further than it had gone the last time Daniel was here; most likely the government had focused their resources on building the satellite rather than working on things here-, Daniel resisted the temptation to draw his wand; having the freedom to use magic again might give him more options when it came to a fight, but if he made his wand obvious he ran the risk that any potential enemies would try and break it before he could use it.

Of course, that didn't stop him wishing that he had a better idea about how to attract Bellatrix/Hestia's attention beyond his current strategy of 'walk around until she sees me'. Hermione had been fairly confident that Hestia would be drawn to him based primarily on the fact that he was the only magical presence on the planet- she, Teal'c and Tonks were waiting for his signal so that they could teleport down in order to limit the possibility of her catching one of them off-guard before they could effectively fight back-, but that didn't stop him feeling concerned about his chances alone against her in the few moments between her discovering him and his friends arriving...

God, he hadn't even felt this apprehensive back when he'd originally killed Voldemort; he'd been scared, but then at least he'd had the advantage of knowing that it would soon be over one way or the other. He might be reasonably confident of the assembled team's chances of defeating Bellatrix on her own, but Hestia's control of Sirius's cousin introduced an unknown factor into this whole mess that he _really_ wasn't comfortable with...

" _POTTER_!" a voice suddenly roared from behind him, Daniel's thoughts being instantly cut off as he spun around to face Hestia/Bellatrix as she hurtled towards him, an insane roar obvious on her face as she charged. Quickly mentally going through everything Teal'c and Jack had ever taught him about hand-to-hand- she was too close and moving too fast for him to draw a weapon-, Daniel grabbed one of her outstretched arms and threw her over himself as he allowed himself to fall backwards, rolling away from her before she could recover to send a quick signal back to _Prometheus_.

As he got back to his feet, he noticed Hestia/Bellatrix regain her balance and turn to face him, but his thoughts about how to respond to this attack were rendered unnecessary when the white beam of the Asgard transporters deposited Hermione, Teal'c and Tonks around him, Teal'c instantly firing his staff weapon at Bellatrix while the two witches launched curses. The Goa'uld witch before them instantly raised a shield charm to deflect the blasts from striking her, but the power of the staff weapon's blast was enough to knock her off-balance long enough for Teal'c to spin his staff around and strike her with the other end, leaving her dazed long enough for Tonks to fire off a Stunner.

Much to the shock of her opponents, however, the Stunner didn't immediately knock its target down. Hestia/Bellatrix appeared to be slightly off-balance as she looked up at the four in front of her, but she was nevertheless still standing, rapid blinking and an intense concentration on her face the only sign that she felt anything from the attack.

"Now you've made me _mad_!" she yelled in the usual dual-toned voice of a host, raising her wand and swiping it as she spoke. The blast of raw magic sent her current opponents flying backwards from the shock, training and experience the only thing that allowed her opponents to adjust their sudden flight to avoid hitting anything in a fatal manner.

Scrambling back to their feet, Teal'c and Daniel pulled out their guns and fired at the Goa'uld, only for their foe to swiftly establish a Shield Charm that slowed the bullets down just long enough for her to neatly step out of their path. Before the Jaffa and the archaeologist could do anything to move further out of the way, the Goa'uld had extended her hand device at them, sending her foes flying before she spun around and launched another blast at Tonks. As Daniel tried to regain his footing, he saw Hermione try to charge towards Hestia herself, only for the Goa'uld to grab Hermione by the throat, casually tossing Hermione's wand aside before she turned her attention back to her latest prisoner.

* * *

  
"Nice try," the woman who had once been only an above-average Death Eater said, following up the comment with a dismissive wave of her wand that left Daniel suddenly unable to move any part of his body (Evidently a silent Body-Bind of some kind; she might not be as physically sadistic as Bellatrix, but Hestia definitely had her own ideas about how to torture her enemies) as she glared at the woman in her hands, "but unfortunately for you, I am _not_ going to go down as easily as my host; I have centuries of experience and knowledge of humanity to draw upon, and-"

"That means... _nothing_..." Hermione spat, glaring scathingly at the other woman. "You've... already lost... this planet..."

"Pardon?" Hestia asked, her grip briefly tightening around Hermione's neck before she stepped back and relaxed her grip to give her prisoner a better chance to talk. "What do you mean by that?"

"You don't _really_ think that they're going to let you just take them over, do you?" Hermione asked, smirking in an exaggerated manner at the former Death Eater and current Goa'uld host. "Haven't you paid any attention to recent events on this planet?"

"What are you talking about, _mudblood_?" Hestia spat at Hermione.

"The satellite weapon that the forces of the Ori have given to these people, of course," Hermione replied with a nonchalant shrug, hoping that her bluff would pay off. "You don't think they won't use it against you to stop you assisting their enemies against them? You might be tough, but I somehow doubt that you can survive a blast from something like _that_ -"

"INSOLENCE!" Hestia yelled, Hermione's throat suddenly clasped in her hand once again as she glared at the Minister of Magic. "I am a _god_!"

"Maybe... you are..." Hermione muttered, still trying to smile despite the pain in her throat. "But... do you... honestly... think that... you can destroy... something... in _orbit_?"

For a moment, Hestia could only stare back at Hermione, turning over her possible response to the witch's challenge, before she scathingly threw Hermione away.

"You know _nothing_ of my power, mortal," she said, as she raised her wand to cast an apparently reinforced bubble-head charm around herself. Based on her limited knowledge of lip-reading, Hermione thought that Hestia was saying something about showing what she could do- the charm was so powerful that it was apparently unable to transmit sound either-, but then the Goa'uld vanished and interpreting what she was saying became relatively unimportant.

"Prometheus _to ground team_ ," her radio suddenly said, the voice on the other end sounding somewhat sceptical. " _We've got... someone's attacking the satellite..._ without _a fighter... or even a spacesuit_."

Hermione would be the first to admit that her knowledge of astrophysics was limited- as much as she'd tried to keep up with some developments in the muggle world, running the Ministry of Magic was a pretty full-time job-, but she didn't need to be a genius to know that something like that was _not_ normal.

* * *

  
As she stood on the edge of the satellite that the Ori interlopers had dared to establish around a world claimed by her, its circular framework providing an ideal location for her to observe the weapon, Hestia smiled in satisfaction.

Had any of her fellow gods ever _known_ such power? With the 'bubble-head charm'- a foolishly childish name, but it served its purpose- providing her host with oxygen, and various warming incantations keeping her body at a decent temperature in the vacuum, she no longer even required the inconvenience of a spacesuit in order to accomplish what her fellows would require a whole ship to accomplish, if they had ever felt like they could even be bothered to attempt it in the first place.

It might be demeaning for a god to take a 'hands-on' approach to things like this, but if it gave her this kind of opportunity to demonstrate her new powers, Hestia could live with a certain indignity.

 _Ah_... she thought, flexing her host's muscles as she took in the unique view around her, the sight of a strange-looking ship in the distance nothing to attract her concern as she focused on the satellite. _A tiring experience... but oh so_ very _worth it..._

She might not be able to do this for long yet, but so long as she gave herself the chance to practise her skills- combined with the enhanced power she had already provided her host with by her mere presence in this body-, she would soon be able to wield a power and authority that no other Goa'uld could match...

First, however, she had to eliminate the most obvious threat to her establishing her authority on this world; with the satellite eliminated, she could continue her efforts to rebuild her power (And eliminate her current ally once she had learned everything she could about the new world he had opened up to her, of course).

Taking advantage of the zero-gravity nature of her environment, Hestia walked around the rod connecting the circular frame to the main satellite, aimed her host's wand- she needed to work on a better focusing mechanism for her new power; maybe hand devices could be modified accordingly- at the core of the satellite and launching a powerful hex at its power source.

As she watched the satellite begin to crackle and overload from the power she had poured into it, magic overloading the technological power of the satellite and sending it into a destructive explosion, Hestia allowed herself a few moments to observe the sight in front of her before she vanished into thin air, barely registering a sudden sharp pain from somewhere as she did so...

* * *

  
It was only after she reappeared back on the planet that Hestia realised the source of the pain she had felt as she was disapparating; whether it was the distance she was travelling combined with the short amount of time she'd had to form a clear picture of her destination, she'd left her left leg behind.

"NO!" she cursed, falling to the ground before she could adjust her balance to compensate for the missing limb. Before she could get back on her feet, a foot clad in the distinctive uniforms of Potter's filthy Tau'ri allies stamped down on the hand where her _kara kesh_ was worn, cracking the device and leaving an uncomfortable pain in her hand as the fingers twisted in a manner that even her limited knowledge of human medicine knew couldn't be healthy.

"What's the matter, Hestia?" a slightly sarcastic voice asked, Hestia turning her head to take in the sight of the mudblood standing close to her, her wand in her hand as the Jaffa _shol'va_ stood over Hestia herself, his foot now on her back as Potter and the host's ridiculously-named cousin took up position a short distance from their 'ally'. "Pushed yourself too hard?"

"You _dare_ to doubt a _god_ -?" Hestia began, enraged that this inferior would doubt her control over her new host's body.

"I _doubt_ a spiritual parasite who's using power that she didn't even know existed until a few weeks ago and believes that she can use it better than people who've been training for decades," the mudblood countered in a nonchalantly resolute manner. "The wizarding world may not have tried going into space ourselves, but that's only because any _magical_ means of doing so are too risky; the fact that you accomplished anything like what you did owes more to the fact that you only did it for a few seconds rather than any skill on your part."

Glancing down at the space where Hestia's leg had been, the mudblood had the gall to actually look sympathetically at the absence before she looked back at Hestia's new face.

"Of course," she continued, her wand lowering slightly as she spoke- it was still in a position where it could be used against Hestia if she attacked, but it was no longer an _obvious_ threat-, "if you're able to tell us something about what Voldemort's actually doing out here-"

Hestia might not like the idea of having been essentially forced into an alliance with a being who had gained her peoples' powers by accident, but she was even less interested in making deals with primitives who dared to feel _sorry_ for _her_. Roaring in rage, she attempted to force herself back to her foot with one arm, raising the other in a weak attempt to shove the _shol'va_ off her back, only for the Jaffa to catch her injured wrist with frustrating ease-

" _Stupefy_!"

Everything went black.

* * *

  
As he found himself standing in the street- that 'teleprompter' thing was really _great_ ; all the fun of Apparation without the worry about losing concentration and splinching yourself-, George didn't take long to see what they'd been sent down here to see; the battered body of Bellatrix Lestrange, dressed in a ridiculously elaborate costume that he couldn't imagine _anyone_ wearing back home, Harry, Hermione, Tonks and Teal'c standing casually around it as the rest of their teams- with the addition of Jared Kane, who'd insisted on coming back with them- arrived.

"Hi," Harry said, nodding at the group in acknowledgement. "I take it that she destroyed the satellite?"

"Concentrated blast of magic right at its heart; damn thing went up like a Christmas tree," Colonel Mitchell confirmed as he nodded at George's old Quidditch teammate.

"Still can't quite believe it," Fred reflected, his expression unusually serious for once as he looked down at their beaten enemy. "She went up into _space_..."

"I know what you mean," Hermione commented, her expression grim despite their recent victory. "I mean, Bellatrix Lestrange was never a slouch, but to Apparate across that kind of distance, _with_ a Bubble-Head Charm and all the warming charms she'd need to stay alive up there, while still having time and energy to destroy the satellite? I just taunted her to do that because I thought that trying to provoke her into attacking it to prove herself was the only thing I could say that might not prompt her to kill us instantly; I didn't think she'd actually _succeed_..."

"As interesting and worrying as that is, Hermione, we _do_ have more immediate things to think about right now," Tonks said, indicating the body before them. "We can probably tie Hestia up, but we still need to work out what we're going to do with her afterwards; stunning her repeatedly isn't practical, but I'm just

"And, in case you're forgetting," Jared pointed out, a slightly uncomfortable attitude about his stance belied by the resolution on his face, "there's still the problem of what's to be done about the tensions caused by the satellite; just because we can accurately state that none of us destroyed it doesn't mean-"

"Wait a minute..." George said, snapping his fingers as a thought struck him with an intensity that he'd never felt for anything that wasn't related to the latest product for his and Fred's shop. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"What?" Mitchell asked, looking at the Weasley twin curiously.

"Well, we've got a body-controlling alien _here_ whose kind came here at least at some point in the past- if I remember what Harry told me about these things, anyway-, we've got a bunch of dead leaders on _both_ sides of this conflict, _and_ we have the Priors showing up ... am I the only one seeing the potential here?" George said, smiling in an attempted encouraging manner at the others.

"Hold on; you're suggesting that we... _fake_ evidence that both sides have been manipulated by those races?" Jared asked, looking at George with an extremely focused stare. "There has been tension between our two sides for _generations_ -"

"I'm not suggesting we set things up so that the Goa'uld and/or the Ori appear to have been responsible for _everything_ you lot did wrong here, I'm just saying that maybe you could claim that they were the reason things went so... nuts... in the last year or two; suggest that the Goa'uld fired things off and then the Ori decided to try a public campaign to show the other guys up, that kind of thing..." George clarified, before he indicated the street around them with a slight shrug. "I mean, I know it's a long shot, but I only just got here and I don't want your planet to get blown up before it's got a chance to stick itself back together; doesn't seem unreasonable to want to find _somebody_ to blame for setting this whole mess off that won't result in your lot and the other lot trying to kill each other..."

Even as Jared continued to stare at George with a focused glare, the slight relaxation of tension in his shoulders demonstrated that he could see the point that his new allies had made.

They had a body-jumping alien that could control peoples' minds, and they had several recently-deceased leaders on both sides; all they had to do was create the impression that the first had been responsible for the actions of at least some of the others, and Rand and Caledonia might have a chance at _some_ kind of peace for the first time in far too long...

"And... our escape from prison?" Jared asked, looking uncertainly at Harry.

"The Goa'uld have access to various means of teleportation; it wouldn't be impossible to assume that Hestia took us out because she wanted to eliminate the threat we might have posed and ended up underestimating us," Harry suggested. "It's not a perfect solution, but it covers the essentials; with the Ori currently limited to their Priors in this galaxy, we could probably protect you from possible retaliation by providing you with something similar to the Iris so that you can stop them from using your 'gate while still giving you the option of contacting us if you need us again."

For a few moments, Jared simply looked solemnly back at Daniel, and then he slowly nodded.

"If you could... take me back to your ship to... go over the timeline of events," he said, his words slowly and carefully chosen, as though he was afraid that something would overhear him and know that he was lying, "I... _might_... be able to help you determine... when the Goa'uld... would have started... escalating the current crisis?"

"Good thinking," Daniel said, nodding at Jared with a slight smile as he looked over at Sam. "Does the _Prometheus_ have the ability to hack Rand's computer systems?"

"With Jared's access codes to the system, it should be possible; even if they've been deleted after he was imprisoned, it gives me somewhere to start," Sam replied with a nod before she looked over anxiously at Jared. "We didn't install that kind of system into _Prometheus intending_ to do this to anyone; it was just so that we could access Earth's computer networks-"

"Don't worry, Colonel Carter; I wouldn't have come to you for help if I thought that you would do... well, anything like what we're about to do," Jared replied, allowing himself a brief smile before he turned to look at the rest of the group. "Well, let's get this over with."


	36. Naquadah and Magic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not my longest chapter, but it contains some geological speculation about the presence and development of naquadah that will play a more interesting role in later plot development

"Well," Mitchell said, as he and the rest of SG-1 and SG-M sat around in the half-empty _Prometheus_ dining hall the following evening, Earth's first ship on its way home after the Rand/Caledonian situation had been resolved. "All in all, I'd say we just had a good day's work, eh?"

"Tell me about it; we saved a whole _planet_ ," Hermione said, before her smile faded as she thought about what she'd just said. "And all we had to do was lie..."

"You're still feeling guilty about _that_?" Fred asked, looking at his almost-sister-in-law incredulously. "Hermione, they were ready to blow themselves to _pieces_ -"

"I _know_ that it was the only thing we could do that would stop anyone else on that planet blowing themselves to pieces for a pointless war that shouldn't have happened; that doesn't mean that I have to _like_ the fact that we _lied_ about it!" Hermione retorted, standing up and leaning over the table to glare at Fred. "Merlin, I've dedicated my whole _career_ to _not_ being the kind of politician we had to deal with back at Hogwarts, and now-"

"You've kept that rule, Hermione," Daniel interjected, looking over at his old friend with a pointed yet reassuring smile. "Fudge and Scrimogeur lied because they wanted everyone to think that they were in control so that they could stay in power even when they weren't; your lie in no way benefited you and will help _other_ people to remain in power."

"Trust me; compared to _most_ of the politicians we've met over the years, you're definitely head and shoulders above them when it comes to honesty," Mitchell confirmed with another nod.

It hadn't been the easiest mission they'd had, but after they'd managed to effectively subdue Hestia/Bellatrix with a sufficient supply of drugs to prevent her from focusing enough to use her magic- while still leaving her aware enough for the symbiote to be in control-, they'd managed to use a low-level Imperious Curse- cast by Tonks as the only person remotely qualified to use something like that in her job- to 'convince' her to confess that she and other Goa'uld had been involved in inspiring Soren's attack on Tegalus last year, with the Ori having 'stepped in' after they had been driven off by SG-1's interference in their original plans.

Fortunately, since the Goa'uld's very nature meant that there wouldn't have been that many official records of their activities on Tegalus, Sam and Jared had been able to support their claims with only the minimal amount of doctored evidence- a few creature comforts sent to a part of the city that had been destroyed when the first bombs fell, implied reference to meetings of a small cult dedicated to worship of a known minor Goa'uld who had fallen off the grid before the final battle around Dakara-, limiting the chance of anyone tracing something back to its original origin while still giving both sides enough evidence that they'd been eliminated.

It was far from a permanent solution, but Rand had agreed to block the Stargate using a basic Iris that the _Prometheus_ had been able to provide them with while the two sides worked on negotiating over their various differences in order to prevent the possibility that a Prior would come back and start the conflict all over again. They'd agreed to remain in touch with Earth in case any outside mediators were required to bring matters to a satisfactory conclusion, but in general Daniel and the others had a reasonable amount of faith that things were going to progress far more smoothly on Tegalus now than they had done in the past.

"Look, what's the big deal?" Mitchell asked, drawing their thoughts away from Tegalus and back to the present conversation. "We've got Hestia captive, those stunners of yours seem to be doing a good job keeping her down without risking her trying to kill herself, we'll get in touch with the Tok'ra when we get back to see what the host can tell us about whatever Voldy's up to, and from there..."

He shrugged. "Well, as they say, Robert's your mom's brother, huh?"

"There's still the increased magical power Hestia's displayed compared to what Bellatrix was capable of to take into account," Hermione added, her expression grim as she looked over at Tonks and Daniel.

"Increased power?" Sam asked, looking curiously at Hermione.

"I may not have made magical theory and strength my area of study," Hermione said- Daniel wondered if he should feel more shocked at the idea of Hermione _not_ knowing about something, but quickly concluded that this wasn't the time to worry about it; they all had other things to worry about right now-, "but that doesn't mean that I don't know the limits of what the average- or not-so-average- witch or wizard is capable of... and I know for a fact that even the most powerful witch or wizard _cannot_ apparate into deep space and still have enough power to blow up something as big as that satellite, even without taking into account the fact that she managed to get back afterwards with only a leg missing."

"Really?" Sam asked, looking at Hermione in surprise. "You mean... there's an actual _limit_ on how much magic people can use? I'd... well, I'd assumed the only real limit was what you _knew_ how to do..."

"Oh, it's like everything, really; some people just have a more natural talent in some areas than others and can do more with their magic than the rest of us," Hermione replied with a slight smile. "Back when we were at school, Voldemort and Dumbledore were generally regarded as the two most powerful magic-wielders alive, and Harry had a particular knack for Defence Against the Dark Arts-related spells- he learnt the Patronus Charm at thirteen in a few months when most adult wizards take around a year to master it-"

"Patronus?" Mitchell repeated, looking over at Daniel slightly quizzically. "What's that?"

"Well... look, has anyone told you about dementors yet?" Daniel asked.

"We are aware of their existence, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c confirmed with a polite nod at his friend.

"Right..." Daniel said, shifting his position slightly so that he could better address his SG-1 teammates. "Well, the Patronus is basically the only real defence against dementors; by focusing on your most positive experiences and emotions, you're able to generate a kind of 'guardian' against the dementor that can attack it without sustaining damage itself. Remus taught me the spell when I was thirteen during my first dealings with the dementors, and I've done an OK job with it whenever I've needed it."

"What does it look like?" Sam asked.

"Well, everyone's is unique to the person who conjures it, but in my case..." Daniel said, smiling slightly as he drew his wand, thought back to some of the times he'd spent with Ginny, Sha're and Sam over the years, and pointed it at an empty part of the mess (Most of the SGC had been briefed on the essential details of the current situation, and at the current angle it would be hard for anyone to see _who_ had cast the spell, so Daniel wouldn't have to answer any more questions from those crewmembers who might not know about his abilities yet unless he wanted to). " _Expecto Patronum_!"

Much to the surprise of the people sitting near that area, a large silvery-white stag appeared, running around the large area for a moment before it ran over to the tables where the two groups were sitting. Taking up a position close to Sam's seat, the stag lowered its head with what almost looked like a slight smile around its muzzle, but Sam had only just started to raise her hand to try and touch the stag's antlers before it vanished.

"It's based on my father's animagus form," Daniel explained, as Sam looked over at him with an eager, inquiringly smile. "He, Wormtail and Sirius learned how to turn into animals so that they could keep Remus company when he turned into a werewolf while they were at school- werewolf bites are only dangerous to humans, and my father and Sirius turned into such large animals that they could keep him under control relatively easily-, and it manifested as my Patronus despite the fact that I didn't actually _know_ what he turned in to when I originally cast the spell."

"That was... I mean, _wow_ ," Sam whispered, wishing she had something more intelligent to say as she looked over at her friend. "And you did... _that_... for the first time when you were only thirteen?"

"Yeah, I was pretty proud of it too; it was the first time I really felt like I was _good_ at something in school apart from Quidditch," Daniel said, smiling slightly at the expression on her face before he became more serious. "Anyway, getting back to the original point of this whole conversation, I _did_ have another idea that it might be worth thinking about regarding Hestia's apparent 'power boost'."

"Really?" Hermione asked, looking at Daniel with an eager smile. "What is it?"

"Well, it's just a basic idea- I'd need to look into a few things before I _know_ if it's right-, but it fits what I can think of off the top of my head..." Daniel said, his voice trailing off as he looked contemplatively upwards before he glanced over at the team's scientist. "Sam, did we ever discover any geological evidence of naquadah on Earth?"

"What?" Sam asked, looking at Daniel in surprise for a moment, before she paused in thought. "Well... actually, that's a good point; we _haven't_ found anything..."

"Huh?" Mitchell repeated, looking at Sam in surprise. "What are you talking about; of _course_ there's been naquadah on Earth. From what I remember, the Ancients built their _first_ Stargate in this galaxy on Earth, they'd kinda need naquadah for that-"

"That's the point, Cam," Sam explained, as she turned to look at her friend. "We know that naquadah _was_ on Earth at one point, we know that the Goa'uld mined it, but we've never encountered any _actual_ geological evidence that naquadah existed on Earth in the past."

"Never?" Hermione asked, looking at her new friend in surprise. "I mean, I know that geology isn't my strong point, but that doesn't exactly seem likely; if the Goa'uld abandoned Earth as long ago as you say they did, even if they'd mined our... naquadah... virtually dry, there should have been at least _some_ fragments left behind that could allow it to develop to some extent after they stopped mining it..."

"My point exactly," Daniel confirmed, nodding at Hermione as he looked back at Sam. "It's a bit of a stretch, but it's just something that I've been thinking about; if most of the planets we've visited- apart from Earth- have at least _some_ traces of naquadah on them, and the only thing that distinguishes Earth from them is the fact that we have magic and they have naquadah, well..."

He shrugged slightly uncertainly as he looked at his friends. "It's a bit of a stretch, I know, but it doesn't seem impossible to speculate that our lack of naquadah is connected to the fact that we have magic where no other planet in the galaxy does."

The group looked at each other in contemplation for a moment, turning over the implications of Daniel's suggestion, before Fred voiced their thoughts.

"You're saying... somebody, what, _blew up_ our naquadah and turned it into magic?" he asked uncertainly.

"Well, 'blew up' might not be a strictly accurate assessment- I'm more inclined to think that someone did something that caused our naquadah to 'disperse' in our atmosphere so that the raw energy it's capable of generating is spread out around the world-, but... basically, yeah," Daniel said with a nod.

"So... magic is just us manipulating the environment around us because we can access the energy of this 'naquadah'?" Hermione asked.

"And the various magical creatures on Earth that we've encountered are based around people and creatures being mutated by that energy in various ways according to the circumstances under which they were exposed to it..." Sam continued, a slight smile on her face for a moment before her expression faded as she looked over at her friend. "Uh... what magical creatures _are_ there, anyway?"

"Oh, a few things," Daniel said, smiling slightly at the thought of Sam's reaction to this latest news. "You already know about phoenixes and giants, but there's also mermaids- although they're not as attractive as the traditional idea of them-, unicorns, centaurs- there was one teaching at Hogwarts the last time I was there-, goblins, elves, dragons-"

"Back up a minute; _dragons_?" Mitchell interjected, his eyes wide as he looked at Daniel. "As in, wings, fire-breathing, nigh-on-indestructible lizards?"

"Yeah, that's one part that actually still surprises me; how can we _not_ know about something as big as dragons being real?" Sam asked, looking uncertainly at Daniel. "I mean, everything else I can understand- phoenixes probably don't look that different from other birds at long-distance, unicorns and centaurs could be mistaken for horses from the right angle, and other things like that-, but surely dragons are a bit... well, _large_ to be mistaken for anything else?"

"Well, the Ministry tends to keep an eye on a few dragon-populated areas so that they make any non-wizards who find out about them forget before they give anything away, but it helps that they're not that common anyway," Tonks said with a slightly nonchalant smile over at the older woman.

"Oh," Sam said, clearly uncertain about how to react to the news of a culture where erasing memories was a regular occurrence- no matter how much she agreed with the motives for doing it-, before she continued. "Anyway, getting back to the original topic, do you think that the naquadah energy is responsible for those creatures existing as the result of... well, of a mutation?"

"They were exposed to naquadah energy under certain circumstances when they were still just normal animals and it made them into what they are?" Daniel responded, nodding thoughtfully at the idea. "It's a bit of a stretch, but it fits everything we know so far; we'd need to do a bit more research before we can figure out whether that's even _possible_..."

"Hold on a minute," George put in, raising a hand uncertainly. "I admit that this isn't my field, but couldn't that mean that we... well, if we can access magic because of some unique experiment that was carried out on Earth in the past, wouldn't that mean that we... well, _need_ to stay there in order to use it?"

"What?" Mitchell asked, looking over at George uncertainly.

"Well, if we've only got magic because we grew up on Earth, doesn't that mean that we won't be able to use it if we go to other planets?" George continued. "I mean, I get that we have our own magic, but if Earth's the only planet where we can use that, isn't it possible that we'd 'run out' if we're off-planet too long...?"

"I don't think so, George," Sam said, shaking her head at him. "It's an interesting idea, don't get me wrong, but that doesn't work; from what I've seen so far, magic in human beings is based on a fixed level of ability for each person, much like we're all capable of reaching a certain degree of physical potential according to any training we've received. It might be more _difficult_ for people to use magic off-world if they're deprived from Earth's magically-charged environment for too long- although we'd need to study that theory in more detail to know it's accurate-, but that doesn't mean it's impossible."

"So, no chance of the Death Eaters 'running down', huh?" Fred asked, shaking his head in exasperation. "So much for _that_ hope..."

"And that's before taking into account the fact that Hestia's power boost suggests that the natural naquadah in hosts' bodies amplifies a host's magical abilities," Mitchell noted, shaking his head in exasperation. "In other words, if Voldemort works it out, he could have the _perfect_ means to amp up their power level before we can do anything...

"I doubt it," Daniel said, shaking his head at Mitchell. "It's a possibility, but I don't think it's likely; Voldemort was arrogant enough back when he was human, and add in the Goa'uld's usual arrogance- coupled with the fact that I wouldn't be surprised if he genuinely believes he's a 'god' now; what Malfoy said in his interrogation suggests that he's at least claiming that the Stargates are portals to other dimensions rather than to other planets- he probably thinks that his new power is simply a natural 'evolution'."

"It's not exactly like we use blood transplants that much either, so there's no way it would occur to him to 'share' his power boost with anyone by giving them samples of his blood," Hermione added, tapping her chin in a contemplative manner for a moment before she shrugged. "It's an interesting discovery, but right now we don't really have the time to explore it; we've got more... immediate issues to deal with at the moment."

"Such as?" Fred asked.

"Well," Hermione said, smiling slightly as she looked over at Daniel, "personally, once we get back to Earth, I'm more interested in seeing what we'll find at that Stargate address Cam and Tonks discovered recently..."


	37. Camelot

"So," Fred asked, as the group walked along the field that had initially greeted them as they emerged from the Stargate, SG-1's weapons raised while 'SG-M'- this time including Lupin and Hagrid, given that the planet's lunar cycle had been confirmed as not being near the full moon and the space available to them was sufficient for Hagrid to walk comfortably- kept their wands out in preparation for whatever might be waiting for them, "I get that we're new, but does anyone have any ideas how this 'weapon' thing we're looking for is actually meant to work?"

"Yeah, I've been wondering that myself," Mitchell added with an awkward shrug. He wished that they had a better idea of what they were looking for right now, but at the same time it wasn't like they had much else to do right now; with the Tok'ra yet to answer their calls regarding the possibility of extracting Helia from Bellatrix, the only sensible thing to do with their time had been to follow up the recently-discovered gate address to see what information the planet in question had to tell them about Merlin's weapon. "I mean, we're talking about something made of pure energy; how do you kill _that_?"

"Technically, Merlin's research didn't refer to the weapon as _killing_ Ascended beings," Daniel pointed out, as they began to walk along the outskirts of a forest that the path they had taken went alongside. He might only have theories about how this kind of weapon they were looking for would work, but even that kind of speculation was better than sitting around at the SGC while wondering if they'd manage to get anything out of Bellatrix Hestia was extracted; their current attempt to keep her immobilised with a full Body-Bind curse cast by all of their wizarding teammates were keeping her secure, but it wasn't like that was a practical long-term solution. "A better term for what I was able to translate would be neutralising, or maybe 'cancelling out'..."

"Still don't get how yer meant te _aim_ this thing at something that you say don't live in the world that we see," Hagrid muttered, looking over at Harry in confusion. "I mean, ye saw what happened ter Nick when he saw the basilisk; ye can't exactly kill somethin' that's not even got a real _body_ anymore. 'Course, if I unnerstood what yer said earlier right, these 'Ori' may have reached their state before dyin' while Nick's _already_ dead, but-"

"Hold on; 'Nick'?" Sam said, looking over at Daniel in confusion. "What Nick are we talking about, and how is he _already_ dead?"

"Oh, Nearly Headless Nick's the Gryffindor House Ghost- he hangs around the tower and offers some advice if he can-; he was attacked by that basilisk I told you about in second year when he caught the full blast of its gaze, but it just left him in a frozen state until we could supply him with the antidote because he naturally couldn't die _again_ ," Daniel clarified, smiling slightly at his SG-1 teammates' suddenly-incredulous expressions.

"How is it that this 'Nick' of whom you speak merits the name 'Nearly Headless Nick'?" Teal'c inquired after a moment's uncertain pause, evidently trying to focus on the most relatively straightforward question facing him.

"He was hit forty-seven and a half times in the neck with a blunt axe when he was executed by nobles for doing some improper Transfiguration on a nobleman's wife in the fifteenth century," Hermione explained. "The result is that he was left with about half an inch of skin and sinew holding his head onto his neck even in his ghostly state; it's left him a bit frustrated at his inability to join the Headless Hunt- a group of headless ghosts who spend their spare time playing various games with their missing heads-, even after he's been dead for over five hundred years."

"Five _hundred_?" Sam said, her eyes wide at the implications of someone existing in that kind of state for that long.

"Uh... are ghosts... common?" Mitchell asked, looking over at Hermione.

"Not as common as you'd think, actually; only wizards can become ghosts, and they only tend to do that when they fear finding out what comes afterwards so much that they'd rather remain here than... well, than take that route themselves," Hermione replied with a slight shrug. "As Harry said, there were a few ghosts at Hogwarts who tended to haunt specific houses- and History of Magic was taught by a ghost, although there was always some debate about whether Professor Binns even noticed that he was dead; apart from arriving through the blackboard he never really seemed to _act_ like a ghost-, but that aside it's really rather rare; getting stuck like that isn't exactly pleasant when you know you can't move on..."

" _Anyway_ ," Daniel said, looking over at Hagrid as he tried to bring the conversation back to its original point, "getting back on topic, the Sangraal probably works by transcending ordinary space-time as we know it in the same way that the Ascended do..."

He trailed off, trying to think of an appropriate analogy for what he thought the device would do- he had a kind of image in his mind, but the difficulty was working out how to express it-, but Fred beat him to it.

"In other words, you don't have a clue, huh?" he said with a slight smile at Daniel.

"Well, apart from having faith that it should work, not really," Daniel confirmed.

"Whoa," Sam said, as they walked around the edge of the forest to find a medieval-looking village in front of them, surrounded by a high wall with a single path leading into it, "this looks promising."

"You can say that again," Tonks said, taking in the sight in front of them with a smile. "Simple set-up, but I guess it works if you're living here."

"Well, no point waiting around outside," Lupin said, smiling over at his teammates as he indicated the small village. "Let's see what we can find, shall we?"

Nodding in confirmation at the werewolf, Mitchell led the group through the main entrance and into the main village. As the villagers turned to look at the new arrivals in surprise, Daniel tried not to feel too uncomfortable at the attention they were attracting as the villagers slowed in their daily activities to look at the two Stargate teams.

"Well," Sam said, glancing around at the various carts in the open square that they were currently standing in, "it certainly looks like a place where Merlin might have lived... no offence meant, I'm not saying I encourage stereotypes-"

"Eh, don't worry 'bout it; back in the middle ages we pretty much lived the same way as the average muggle, includin' Merlin," Hagrid said, nodding reassuringly at Sam.

"Wouldn't get excited yet," Mitchell pointed out, glancing briefly at his shoe- most likely checking that he hadn't stepped in anything unpleasant- as he spoke. "There could be dozens of villages in the area just like this one; no way to know for sure this is the right one."

"Apart from that, of course," Hermione added, indicating to their right. Turning around, it was virtually immediately obvious what she was indicating; a simple silver sword sticking out of a large grey block of stone, standing in the middle of the village, somehow presenting a sense of importance despite the lack of any decoration to indicate that it was held in particular status by its inhabitants.

"Whoa..." Fred said as the teams gathered around the object. " _Neat_..."

"Travellers," a voice said, prompting the team to look up at the sight of a small group of people leaving a door behind the stone, the speaker and apparent leader of the group dressed in deep reddish-brown robes.

"I am Meurik," the original speaker continued, his voice stumbling slightly even as he tried to project an air of confidence, "governor of this village. Welcome to Camelot."

Glancing at the rest of the expanded team, Daniel wondered if he should smile at this latest twist of events or wonder at it himself.

On the one hand, they'd only just arrived here, and they'd already found a couple of fairly obvious clues that they were on the right track, but on the other hand, with VOldemort still out there somewhere, he couldn't overlook the possibility that they were dealing with a situation that was too good to be true...

* * *

  
As the group sat in the village tavern a few minutes later- Daniel had to admit that he preferred the casual informality of places like this to the more formal environment of a village hall or something like that-, food and drink laid out in front of them as they talked with the still-seemingly-awkward Meurik, Daniel wondered if he was being unrealistic in allowing himself to get his hopes up about how this 'mission' was going so far; the planet had the right name, the sword in the stone seemed like an encouraging discovery, and without any natives accusing them of being enemy agents or running in fear from the Ori, Jaffa, or Death Eaters, he liked to think that things could be a lot worse so far.

"These must be the strangers that everyone is speaking of," a new arrival said as he walked up behind Meurik, this man wearing an oddly-shaped hat with a wider circular top and simpler red robes over a cream-coloured top and trousers.

"This is Antonius, our village historian," Meurik explained.

"Welcome to Camelot," Antonius said, smiling around at the team, "past and future home of King Arthur and his round table."

"Sorry; future home?" Sam asked.

"I assume you know the history of the battle of Camlann?" Meurik asked, smiling slightly indulgently at Sam, as though she'd asked something that she should have learned long ago.

"That's... where Arthur was mortally wounded in battle, right?" Hermione asked, looking between Meurik and Daniel for confirmation.

"Arthur?" Meurik repeated, his smile becoming a slightly more amused one that put Hermione in mind of Snape pointing out a supposedly obvious flaw in a potion they'd just completed. "Mortally wounded?"

Before Hermione could ask him what he meant herself, Meurik simply gestured at Antonius. "Speak."

"Arthur defeated Mordred at the battle of Camlann," Antonius began to explain, "after which he and his fellow Knights set off to find the Sangraal."

"The what?" George asked in a low voice.

"The Holy Grail," Daniel clarified.

"That was long ago," Antonius continued, apparently unconcerned about the interruption, "but we know in our hearts that one day he will return to us."

"Uhm... what happened to Merlin when he left?" Daniel asked.

The effect of his question was subtle, but nevertheless abrupt, Antonius's slight smile fading as Meurik put down the cup he'd been drinking from only moments ago.

"I have matters to attend to," the village governor said, standing up. "It's best I take my leave now. Enjoy your stay with us."

"Did I... offend him?" Daniel asked, looking awkwardly at Antonius.

"Not at all," the historian said, waving his hands dismissing as he sat down in Meurik's vacated seat. "It's just that... Merlin's name is rarely mentioned in public."

"Why's that?" Lupin asked.

"Well, many believe that he was a wizard of darkness," Antonius explained solemnly. "He may have tried to do good, but... there was always potential for great mischief in his heart. Thankfully, he has neither been seen nor heard of since Arthur's departure; the library where he practised his strange arts remains sealed to this day."

"Merlin had a _library_ here?" Hermione said, beating anyone else's opportunity to make a comment about this new development.

"Of course," Antonius said. "It was his private sanctuary here in Camelot."

"Any chance we could... take a look?" Fred asked, his eyebrows raised in what he hoped would be an encouraging manner.

"I'm afraid that's impossible," Antonius replied, with a solemn shake of his head. "The library is protected by a powerful curse. It is said that all those who enter Merlin's sanctuary forfeit their lives to its guardian, the Black Knight."

As SG-1 exchanged glances with each other in recollection of the last 'black knight' they'd encountered, Daniel had little doubt that the wizarding members of their current group were already considering how to find and break whatever curse was keeping them from the information they'd come here to collect.

However things went from here, at least he knew that they were about to get _very_ interesting...

* * *

  
"OK," Mitchell said, as the two SG teams walked out of the tavern, heading back towards the village centre, "so, best case scenario, this 'curse of the Black Knight' is a story Merlin made up to scare off the locals; worst case scenario, he's got another holographic Knight protecting his goods like he did back in England. Either way, I don't see a big problem."

"Uh... could you get back to that bit about the Knight guarding Merlin's 'goods' in England?" Hermione asked, mentally cursing her lack of preparation; she'd tried to cut down on her habit of reading to excess since leaving Hogwarts to stop herself becoming overwhelmed with information while she was doing research, but that meant she had a greater chance of missing relevant facts like that.

"Oh, when we were checking out the location of the storage area in Glastonbury where Merlin left that device of his, I ended up having to fight this holographic knight as part of the defences; damn thing nearly killed me and Teal'c before I managed to stab it with this sword I'd found earlier," Mitchell explained dismissively. "The point is, we dealt with that thing, and I'm pretty sure-"

Teal'c made a slight murmur of disapproval as he glanced around the square.

"What?" Mitchell asked, looking back at his Jaffa teammate.

"Given your victory over the Knight in the Avalon cave," the Jaffa commented even as they continued walking, "it would seem your over-confidence is ill-advised."

"Did I say anything about me doing the fighting?" Mitchell asked, indicating the group around them. "We've got a lot more firepower on our side this time around-"

"The point is," Daniel said, hoping that he could cut this conversation off before things became too involved, "last time, it was a test designed to measure a challenger's worth; this time, it sounds more like a defence mechanism set up to protect Merlin's research, which means it could be a lot tougher and the same rules might not apply."

"I think we should split up and look around," Sam said, her walk ending as she looked around at the rest of the group.

"Sounds like a plan," Tonks said with an approving smile.

"Indeed," Teal'c added.

With that agreement, the group split up to head in various directions, Mitchell, Hermione, Fred, George and Teal'c taking one path while Daniel, Sam, Hagrid, Lupin and Tonks went back the way they'd originally come.

His group had only spent a few moments walking before Daniel realised that he and Sam were walking at a slightly slower pace than the others, an inquiringly expression on Sam's face even as she kept an eye on their associates; recognition that they were professionals themselves only got them so much respect when Sam knew so comparatively little about their pasts.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, turning to look at her.

"No... nothing's _wrong_ , really; I just..." Sam said, pausing for a moment before she looked at him with a slight smile. "It's... interesting... to see this side of you, I guess."

"This side of me?" Daniel repeated.

"I mean, for as long as I've known you, your own past has never been something you've liked to share unless you had to, and now... here we are, working alongside people you've known since you were a kid," Sam clarified, indicating the group of three in front of her with a slight wave of her hand. "It's just... surprising, I guess."

"Bit of a contrast to the geek you thought I was before I went to Abydos, huh?" Daniel said with a smile.

"I couldn't have exactly thought of _you_ as a 'geek' without thinking of myself that way as well, Daniel," Sam said, smiling back at him before she shook her head and looked more seriously at him. "But... well, I admit, you didn't exactly seem to be the 'take charge' type; even when you were talking with the rest of the Abydonians after Sha're and Skaara were abducted, they only really seemed to be listening because they knew you knew what you were talking about..."

"If it's any consolation, that was a pretty accurate description of most of the times I spent as a leader back at Hogwarts as well," Daniel replied, a part of his attention still focused on studying his surroundings for some trace of Merlin's library even if the rest of him was focused on his current conversation with Sam. "Most of the time when I 'took charge' I only did it because I had experience that the rest of the year didn't- like the time I ended up teaching a Defence Against the Dark Arts class because our official teacher was focusing on the theory-"

"Hold on; you _taught_ a class while you were at school?" Sam said, looking over at Daniel in surprise. "I mean, I know you were a teaching assistant at college, but you were a teacher- actually in charge of the _class_ \- when you were a _teenager_?"

"Well, it was only unofficial, but I actually attracted a decent amount of attention; after spending the last four years managing to fight off the worst that Voldemort had to throw at me, as well as my training for the Triwizard Tournament the previous year, I'd picked up a few interesting tricks over the years, and our current official teacher was just Umbridge, who I've already told you about," Daniel replied with a slight shrug even as Sam nodded grimly in confirmation; evidently she remembered his tales of the worst Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher he'd ever had. "As I said, it was all pretty straightforward stuff; I started out with Disarming spells and went from there to work on a few more elaborate combat spells until we were working on Patronuses before we were discovered, even if my actual real-world _combat_ experience was a bit limited..."

"You taught them Patronuses?" Sam said, looking at her friend in approval as she remembered the brilliant white stag she'd seen earlier. "You were teaching people how to do those at fifteen?"

"The theory's straightforward enough once you know how to do it; it's finding the right memory that's hard, really," Daniel replied, smiling slightly at the memory of his old lessons as he indicated the three wizards ahead of them. "Actually, Remus was the one who taught me how to do it originally; it took me a few months to get it right, but I finally managed to pull it off when I was facing an army of Dementors who were trying to kill Sirius."

"Pulling off a classic last-minute save?" Sam asked with a slight smile.

"It was the kind of student I was back then, really; the practical aspect of actually _casting_ the spells was more interesting to me than the theoretical issues of how each spell accomplished the goal I needed to use it for," Daniel said, smiling slightly in recollection. "Of course, my focus shifted more to the theory side of things after I started my life as Daniel Jackson, but at least it was something that I found interesting; I enjoyed the research when I was at school if the topic I was researching was interesting in itself..."

"Uh... Harry?" Tonks's voice suddenly said from up ahead of them, looking back at the archaeologist and the astrophysicist with a slightly questioning expression.

"Yeah?" Daniel replied, glancing back at his old associate (He liked Tonks, but he'd never really spent enough time with her to consider her a friend, even if her connection to Remus and Sirius helped improve his social opinion of her).

"Might not be _quite_ what you're looking for, but that building over... well, a few of Remus's magic detection charms are showing that the area's giving off _some_ kind of energy, even if it's not magic the way we know it..." the metamorphagus explained, shrugging awkwardly.

"It's more than what we've got at the moment," Daniel said with a resolute nod. "Let's see what's in there."

Even as he walked towards the library, however, a part of him couldn't help but wonder how what Sam was learning about his real past was affecting her actual opinion of him.

She might have been shocked at the idea that he'd killed someone as a teenager, but she seemed to be coping with that well enough now- although the fact that Voldemort had definitely deserved it probably helped-, but the idea of him as a leader of what was essentially a paramilitary campaign back when he was a teenager was a _bit_ of a difference from killing someone in self-defence...

Groaning briefly in frustration at himself, Daniel turned his attention back to the more immediate matter of the mystery currently facing them; he could worry about what Sam thought of what he'd been as Harry once this whole mess was over.

The fact that she might actually _like_ what he'd been back then wasn't something he wanted to examine too closely; after everything that being Harry Potter had done to his life, he didn't want to go back to that state unless he had to (And it wasn't like he had Jack's kind of understanding of what Sam did anyway)...


	38. Entering Merlin's Library

As he walked up the path to the simple hut that apparently contained Merlin's library- the building was tucked away at the end of a back-alley on the village outskirts, but given Merlin's reputation here that certainly fit what they knew of the situation so far-, Daniel wondered how he should feel about this particular turn of events.

Ever since he'd become Daniel Jackson, he'd never really used his research skills to explore the past of the wizarding world beyond the brief trips he'd made to Diagon Alley and other locations to check a few historical texts and confirm his theories about the construction of the pyramids- even if he'd left the wizarding world, he hadn't wanted to accidentally expose it by drawing attention to something that could only be explained through magic-, and now here he was, about to explore the library of _Merlin_ himself...

To say that he was intimidated was an understatement; he was just grateful that Hermione was on the planet as well so that he wouldn't have to worry about the wizarding world 'missing out' on a discovery like this.

"Nice place, huh?" Mitchell said, breaking into Daniel's train of thought as he walked up to join the others, indicating the teenage girl and the young boy that had joined their group; evidently he and his team had found a couple of local guides before Hermione or the Weasley twins could try a search themselves. "Oh, this is Valencia and Ramus; they helped direct us to this place."

"Thanks," Tonks said, nodding at the teenage girl in approval, smiling slightly at the sight of . "Saves us having to find these guys."

"You are welcome," Valencia replied, nodding awkwardly at Tonks before she turned to look at Mitchell. "But you cannot get through; the door is magiced."

"Really?" Hermione said, smiling slightly as she reached out with one hand to touch the door, only to pull her hand sharply back when she was met with a crackle of energy for her efforts (It wasn't anything explicitly magical- it could just as easily be those 'force field' things she'd heard Daniel say that the SGC had access to, even if she hadn't really seen them in action yet-, but it was still something out of the ordinary).

"There is a key," Valencia explained. "No one dare use it."

"And where would we get this key?" Lupin asked, looking at her with a polite, inquiring manner that Daniel wondered if he'd acquired from his time as a teacher or his time as a father.

"It is kept in the village archives," Valencia replied.

"Ah," Fred said, looking grimly over at the others. "Why do I get the feeling that they aren't going to be very keen to _give_ us that key given their attitude towards Merlin?"

"Well, thanks for your help," Daniel said, nodding slightly at Valencia and Ramus as they looked at him. "We... appreciate what you've told us, anyway."

As the children nodded and walked away, Daniel slipped his wand out of his sleeve and turned to look at the other wizards with a slight smile.

"Shall we?" he asked.

"Can't hurt to try, anyway," George confirmed, as he and the other wizards drew their own wands. "If it doesn't work, it's not like we'll lose much by it, anyway; we'll just have to try and get that key and hope for the best."

"Right then," Tonks said, aiming her wand at the door before them. "On three; one... two... _three_!"

" _Alohamora_!" the seven wizards said, their wands focused on the lock in front of them. For a moment the shield crackled as though it was trying to stop their efforts, but it finally ceased its 'struggle' as the shield seemed to be suddenly sucked into the keyhole, which gave off a brief white glow before the door opened in front of them.

"Oh my God..." Hermione whispered, looking over at her friends with a near-ecstatic smile. "We're about to see _Merlin's Library_..."

"Yeah, I know; cool, huh?" George said.

"Cool?" Hermione repeated, looking at the Wesley twin incredulously. "George, 'cool' isn't the word for it; this is... is...!"

She paused for a moment, waving her hands in the air as though trying to find the right word for what she was trying to say, before she gave up and turned around to practically run into the door before her, followed by the rest of the group.

Once inside the building, Daniel wasn't sure if he should be excited or disappointed. The thick layers of dust and spider-webs around the room didn't exactly encourage the idea of this place as a location where a powerful wizard had once worked, but a few of the tools on the table, such as a metallic globe, and what he could see of the book titles in the dim light coming through the open door and the boarded-up windows did seem to encourage the idea that Merlin had once worked here.

"Dark, isn't it?" Mitchell commented, pulling out his torch to examine his surroundings.

"Let me; _lumos_ ," Lupin put in, raising his wand to illuminate the room more fully. Noting a few candles still scattered around the room, the rest of the wizards lit the candles with a few quick spells, revealing more of the books scattered around the room, along with several shelves full of scrolls and parchment.

" _Nice_..." Fred said, smiling at their current location, before his face fell as he processed the sheer amount of material now available to them. "Aw, _nuts_... this is gonna take a while, isn't it?"

"Probably," Daniel said, picking up one of the books and blowing on it to remove the dust that it had gathered over the years. "Still, you know what they say; many hands make light work."

"In every sense of the word," Fred added, indicating the now-illuminated candles with a slight smile, only for his face to fall as everyone turned to stare at him and his brain processed what he'd just said. "Hey, c'mon, I'm on another planet in _Merlin's library_ looking for information on a weapon that can basically kill gods; I think I'm entitled to have a bit of trouble thinking of a good joke or two..."

In a sense, the fact that one of the Weasley twins was having trouble making a joke was one of the most amusing details of the current situation for Daniel, even if it was more of a black humour; the idea that even _they_ had trouble finding something to laugh at after some of their products during the last war against Voldemort didn't exactly inspire confidence.

* * *

  
"Anyone found anything yet?" Tonks asked, looking up from the parchment she and Lupin had been studying for the last couple of hours since they'd gained access to the library. While some of the parchments were written in Ancient, there were enough examples of old English and similar Earth-based languages included in the various texts that most of the wizards involved could at least understand the basics of what they were reading, and Hermione and Lupin had included a few translation spells to make it easier if they found anything that looked particularly promising (The spells could only provide a basic idea of what the original text said, but that was often enough to at least determine if it was worthwhile for Daniel to take a closer look).

"Nothing obvious, but it's... really rather interesting," Daniel said, as he indicated the book that he was currently reading. "This text discusses Merlin's prophetic abilities, although it seems to be tied into the idea that he actually saw the future because he aged backwards in time rather than actual divination..."

"Is that actually possible?" Hermione asked suddenly. "I mean, you _did_ mention that you've travelled in time once or twice- beyond what a Time-Turner would be capable of, anyway-, so..."

"Travelled in time physically, yes; this is something different," Daniel said, even as he contemplatively studied the text. "The point is that we know that a lot of the folklore we take for granted even in the wizarding world was inspired by the Ancients- Avalon, Atlantis, that kind of thing..."

"Are you saying that there's time-travel technology here?" Sam asked, looking uncertainly at Daniel.

"I'm saying that there could be anything here; there's no way to know what Merlin could have here," Daniel clarified. "We don't know what kind of connection Merlin had to the wizarding world, or even what he could do on his own without technological assistance- some of his feats could have been accomplished with technology rather than his magical abilities-; he definitely had _some_ powers, but I just can't be sure where they came from or what they were specifically..."

"Well, I hate to break it to you folks," Mitchell said, walking over to take a closer look at a bookshelf in a small alcove in the corner of the room, "but I'm not too keen on us finding anything like that here; the only technology I'm seeing is a bunch of dusty old books-"

As he attempted to move a book from a shelf, the book's motion triggered a strange clicking sound, and the entire bookcase suddenly slid off to the side, revealing a long dark corridor behind it.

"And a secret passage," Mitchell finished unnecessarily, walking into the corridor as the rest of the group walked over to join him in his examination of this new discovery. "Alright, there's another chamber."

"Am I the only one thinking that this place is a bit bigger inside than it looked?" Fred asked, looking over at his brother with a slight smile.

"Nope," George confirmed, grinning broadly as they took in the door before them. "Let's see what we've got in there..."

As they moved along the newly-discovered corridor, the wizards were initially left feeling slightly disappointed at the pitch-black room they found at the other end, but this disappointment faded before they could even increase the intensity of their _lumos_ charms as a fire place burst into life just as Sam walked by it, followed by torches lighting up on the room's walls all around them as they watched. In a matter of seconds, the room was revealed to be at least the size of the Gryffindor common room, with a large device in the centre of the room that reminded the SGC members of the Ancient control consoles used for controlling the Ancient time machine or the weapon at Dakara.

They might not know _what_ they were dealing with in this library yet, but at last they had a clearer idea that they were on the right lines to find what they were looking for at the moment.

"It's not some kind of puzzle, is it?" Tonks asked, looking over at Daniel in slight exasperation. "Because I'm telling you right now, I am _not_ in the mood for puzzles; I'm an auror, not a curse-breaker-"

"It's not a puzzle," Daniel interjected, looking thoughtfully at the massive panel before him as he studied the various squares with his torch. "It's an Ancient control device; we've encountered other variations of this kind of technology over the years."

"What does it control?" Lupin asked.

"I have no idea," Daniel said, stepping onto a platform just in front of the console, allowing himself a slight smile as the platform lit up; at least this way he had more light to work with.

"I've seen this type of interface before," he explained, mainly for his wizarding friends' benefit than for that of his teammates (He didn't like making that kind of distinction, but the fact remained that it did exist; even if he was grateful to be working with them again, he had been away from the wizarding world for several years). "Activating it is a matter of correctly interpreting these symbols..."

The sound of a scream from outside quickly cut off further conversation, a brief exchange of glances all that was required for the team to come to the decision to turn around and head back towards the passage; with the situation the way it stood right now, they couldn't afford to take any chances if something like that was happening.

It was only when they came out the door of the library to find two villagers that neither of them had ever seen before, lying on the ground with no obvious signs of disease or physical wounds that could have been the cause of their demise.

_Damnit_... Daniel thought to himself, as the villagers turned to look at the group who had just left Merlin's library, their eyes narrowing in obvious hostility at the sight of this clear violation of what was clearly one of the village's central rules.

Add this on to what they'd heard earlier about the library being protected by a curse, and Daniel didn't need to have Merlin's implied ability to see the future to know that this mission had just become significantly more complicated...

* * *

  
"How could you do this?" Meurik asked, slamming a hand on his desk as he glared at the assembled teams, the group once again sitting around a table in the tavern. "You were warned that the library was cursed-!"

"Look, it wasn't meant to go down like that," Mitchell said, looking indignantly at the other man. "We figured that if the Knight was going to appear it would be in the chamber, and he wouldn't go after anybody but us.

"You were warned of the danger and you refused to believe," Meurik said, showing no sign that he particularly cared about their reasoning. "And you awakened the curse."

"The Black Knight is not part of any curse," Daniel said, not even needing to feign his exasperation with the other man's attitude; he might know of magic himself, but he'd also encountered enough examples of technological effects capable of duplicating magic over the last decade to know when he was and wasn't dealing with it, and this was one of those times. "He isn't magical and he isn't unbeatable."

"Your world as well as countless others are in danger of being overrun by an enemy far more powerful than you could ever imagine," Teal'c added, staring at Meurik with his usual intensity. "They are called the Ori, and they will destroy anyone who does not kneel before them."

"We learned a long time ago Merlin was working on a weapon that could be used against them and the key to finding that weapon is inside that library," Daniel continued, hoping that the urgency of his tone would convince Meurik to show some degree of leniency for their mistake; surely Kinsey and Fudge had been enough incompetently arrogant government officials for any one man to have to deal with...

"I have never seen nor heard of these Ori, but we have witnessed the power of the Black Knight," Meurik said resolutely. "Leave this village. Take the curse with you."

With that, he walked out of the tavern, leaving the two teams to stand there in silence as they contemplated what had just happened; if Daniel hadn't had over two decades of experience to fall back on, he was fairly sure this was one of the times when Harry would have flown into a rage of indignation at peoples' inability to listen to him.

"Do you think revealing that _we_ can do magic would change anything?" George asked at last, looking uncertainly at the rest of the group. "Y'know, we try and convince them that we can protect them from the curse now that we know there's something to protect them _against_...?"

"Given Merlin's negative reputation among these people, I wouldn't count on it; given the way our luck's been going lately, we could end up being prosecuted for his crimes," Lupin responded, shaking his head grimly. "Honestly... we find ourselves somewhere _totally_ outside the Statute of Secrecy, and we _still_ can't tell anyone about ourselves..."

"You know," Hermione put in, looking pointedly over at Lupin, "as Minister for Magic, I really _should_ object to your desire to violate one of the first rules of our society..."

"Oh, sorry-" Lupin began.

"But given that I wish I could do it myself, I can't really complain; it _would_ sometimes make things a bit easier," the smartest Gryffindor of several generations finished, smiling reassuringly at Lupin before she looked back over at Daniel with her usual expression of cool professionalism. "What do you think?"

"Well, our best bet right now would probably be for you, me and Sam to try and get back into that library while the rest of the team try and find some means of shutting down the Black Knight," Daniel said, nodding speculatively as he looked around at the others.

"Is it really worth the effort?" George asked. "I mean, I didn't really see anything obvious down there, and we're not exactly welcome here any more..."

"Which is _exactly_ what Merlin wanted," Hermione said, snapping her fingers as she smiled in understanding.

"Huh?" Fred said, looking over at his near-sister-in-law inquiringly.

"Well, he probably set up the Black Knight to attack the _village_ rather than the chamber in order to incite terror and thus discourage anyone from going into the library in the first place," Hermione explained. "I mean, killing anyone who went inside the chamber doesn't really stop anyone from being willing to risk _their_ lives by going inside, but the possibility of risking the lives of _others_ might stop anyone doing anything themselves..."

"Unless, of course, we're dealing with the likes of Voldemort and his Death Eaters, who'd probably try and take the library and kill all the villagers anyway..." Daniel added, a grim expression on his face as he spoke.

"Oh, right..." Hermione said, looking awkwardly at her friend before her eyes widened in shock. "Hold on; you mean-?"

"I'm not saying that it's _likely_ \- there's no evidence that Voldemort or anybody among the Death Eaters even knows what they're really dealing with by using the Stargates if Malfoy's rant was anything to go by, and it's not like we have any reason to think that they know anything about Merlin apart from the usual legends in the first place-, but if he's out there now, with the Ori trying to reach this galaxy..." Daniel said, his voice trailing off as he allowed his friends to fill in the blanks in his statement for themselves.

"Don' exactly bode well fer our chances, huh?" Hagrid finished for his old friend.

"Let's just say I'd rather we prepared for the worst rather than letting it happen," Daniel clarified. "The point is that Merlin designed this 'Black Knight' program because he was worried that someone might stumble on to the solution, which means there _is_ a solution, and it's inside that chamber."

"A shut-off switch," Sam said, her head nodding slightly in understanding.

"Exactly," Daniel confirmed.

"Well, that's great," Mitchell said, his tone making it clear that he didn't actually think it was himself, "but how does it help us now?"

"I don't know," Daniel said, shaking his head in brief frustration before he looked back at the group. "As I said, I think that our best chance to find a solution is if Hermione, Sam and I try and look around the library while you try and find some way to turn the Knight off out here."

"How did you stop the last one you ran into?" Tonks asked, looking curiously around at the SG-1 members.

"Well, I drew a sword from a stone and impaled the thing," Mitchell replied with a casual shrug.

"Why do I get the feeling this won't be that simple?" Fred suggested, looking uncertainly at his brother.

"You have experienced life as an associate of SG-1, Fred Weasley," Teal'c replied, a slight smile on his lips that was at odds with the grim expression in his eyes. "Our lives are regularly extremely difficult."

"Look, let's just see what we can do here, OK?" Hermione said, looking urgently at the group around her. "Harry's right; if we and Sam look around Merlin's library, the rest of you can maybe leave the village, cast a few Disillusionment Charms on yourselves, sneak back in, and then just... try and stay away from anywhere where you'd be obvious to people until we can figure out some way to shut down the Black Knight."

"Disillusionment Charms?" Teal'c asked.

"Basic camouflage spell, in essence; it doesn't turn you invisible, but it helps you 'blend in' to otherwise monochromatic backgrounds to a degree so that you can hide more easily so long as you don't do anything to _really_ draw attention to yourself," Hermione explained, before she turned her attention back to Daniel and Sam. "Anyway, we'd better get on with this; if we look like we're leaving on our own, it should discourage Meurik from wanting to make _sure_ we've left."

"If we _look_ like we're obeying him, he probably won't try and make sure of it?" Mitchell said, looking slightly quizzically at Hermione as though seeking confirmation of his assessment.

"That _was_ basically what I was thinking, yes," Hermione replied with a slight shrug. "It's a bit of a gambit, but if you have a better idea I'd appreciate it."

"Well..." Mitchell said, looking between the group around him before he finally shrugged. "It's worth a shot, right?"

"'Cept fer me," Hagrid added, from where he was uncomfortably squatting down in a corner of the bar. "Those charms wouldn' really be much use on me- bit tall to blend in ter anything, after all-, even if gian' blood didn't make it hard to use 'em on me in the firs' place; maybe I could head back ter the SGC an' fill 'em in on what we're dealin' with?"

"Sounds good to me," George confirmed.

"Just make it clear that we've got a plan for finding what we came here for, and we'll be there as soon as we can, OK?" Mitchell said, looking pointedly at the half-giant gamekeeper, Hagrid responding with a confirming nod.

Daniel just wished that he could shake the feeling that this wasn't going to be as easy as they were trying to pretend it was; even if they could figure out a way to shut down the Black Knight, they still had a lot of library to go through to find something relevant to their search, and he didn't even have any guarantee that they'd find that (Even if he was definitely planning to offer Hermione access to the library once they had dealt with the immediate threat of Voldemort; if anyone deserved to read the secrets of that library, it was her, and the IOA couldn't exactly object if the wizards were going to be helping them in the long term)...

He sometimes wished for the old days when they'd been fighting the Goa'uld; their goal then might have been larger-scale, but they also had a clear idea how to do it and no need to worry about more complicated plans to do so.

Still... when he'd gone back to the wizarding world, he'd known that things were practically guaranteed to become more difficult before they got better; so far, their assistance had proven useful, and that was the main thing.


	39. Personal Reflections in the Library

As she reappeared in the library in a disorientating swirl of magic, Sam made a mental note to ask Hermione how she ever got used to travelling in that manner; apparition might not require the variety of technological resources necessary for the other forms of teleportation she'd encountered in the last decade or so, but that didn't make it any more pleasant to actually experience.

"Yeah, I was never that comfortable travelling that way myself," Daniel said, smiling slightly as he noted the expression on Sam's face as he released his hold on her arm. "Just be glad you haven't had to go anywhere by Floo powder yet; that's not only disorientating, but you get soot in your face."

"Oh, right; that's the thing where you travel by... fireplace, right?" Sam asked, as Hermione turned away from the two SG-1 members and began to pick some of the books off the shelves. "Siler _really_ had trouble getting that set up in one of the spare rooms earlier..."

"Well, it gets the job done and it saves people having to think about the destination themselves; personally, though, I could never really get the hang of saying my destination around a mouthful of flame and soot when I had to go somewhere," Daniel replied, before he shrugged slightly as a slight smile crossed his face. "Of course, my first time using it could have been the cause of that; I ended up coming out of the wrong fireplace and arrived in the wizarding equivalent of the black market before Hagrid found me."

"How old were you?" Sam asked, looking curiously at Daniel.

"Twelve; I was staying with the Weasleys when the time came to go to Diagon Alley- it's a secret street in London that caters to the wizarding community-, and I wasn't clear enough when I was saying where I wanted to go," Daniel replied, smiling slightly whimsically at the memory- it sounded like one of those things that would have been scary at the time but amusing to look back on when everything was over- before he shook his head and turned his attention back to the library around them. "Anyway, we'd better get started; if you can try and find some way to deactivate that console physically, Hermione and I might be able to find some sort of pass-code to shut down the knight..."

Sam simply nodded in understanding before she turned around and headed down the passageway that lead to the console, taking care not to stand exactly where Daniel had stood when the light on the console had activated- there was no point 'triggering' the Black Knight if she could figure out another way to learn how this thing worked and what it could tell them- as she began to try and analyse the device in front of her.

Admittedly, she hadn't had much chance to explore this kind of console in depth- further analysis of the time machine they'd discovered on P4X-639 had generally been dismissed given what Jack and Teal'c had been able to tell them about its limited nature, and she had never felt it appropriate to ask for a chance to examine the weapon at Dakara more closely as it could have caused religious controversy among the Jaffa-, but with examples from the various other examples of Ancient technology she'd been able to examine over the last decade, she was fairly confident that she'd be able to find _something_ useful eventually...

* * *

  
" _Damnit_..." Fred muttered as he tried to keep himself pressed up against the walls of the village huts, looking in exasperation at where Mitchell was meant to be standing. "Didn't you say you fought this 'knight' thing before?"

"As Jackson already mentioned, this isn't the same as the last time; there's really no guarantees about how the _new_ Black Knight will operate compared to how the _old_ one performed, and this is _really_ not the time to be talking about that kind of thing..." Mitchell muttered, looking back at the source of the red-headed jokester's voice with a frustrated expression that still did little to express his feelings about their current position.

It wasn't that he _wanted_ the Black Knight to show up and start killing people, but he'd hoped that the thing would show some sign of activity sooner rather than later; how could they deactivate the damn thing if it wasn't _here_ to deactivate?

Add in the fact that Landry was definitely getting more than a bit annoyed at their delayed return without even being able to provide any kind of guarantee that they would come back with something worthwhile- Hagrid's return to the SGC might have updated them on the essentials, but that hadn't stopped Landry from making his frustration clear-, and Mitchell supposed that it was only natural for him to feel a bit worried right now.

Even without the Ori, they still had that 'Voldemort' sucker to deal with, and Mitchell wasn't sure _how_ they were gonna cope with that guy; even if they could find him, what he'd seen of 'SG-M's' abilities made it pretty clear that someone dangerous enough to make _them_ scared was somebody he _really_ didn't want to mess with...

He'd fight the guy if he _had_ to, of course; he just really hoped that it didn't come down to something like that. From everything Daniel had told them, he had his doubts that Voldemort would be remotely interested in letting him get in close enough for any fight between them to become physical- he was trying not to think about the fact that the guy was a Goa'uld; from everything he'd heard about the guy Voldemort probably wouldn't know how to _use_ his new strength-, and for all their tests on how magic responded to bullets there were still a lot of x-factors in a match-up like that one would be that Mitchell, for one, didn't want to test unless he _really_ had to.

Still, he supposed that it could be worse; their new allies definitely opened up more than a few possible new lines of defence that they wouldn't have had otherwise, to say nothing of the sheer 'wow' factor of learning about a whole world of magic that had been hidden on Earth for centuries. Fred and George had already invited him to check out a couple of quidditch games after they'd tracked Voldemort down- that was one thing he liked about those guys; they might still be freaked about Voldemort being back, but they were also confident that Jackson could beat him again-, and he'd really enjoyed his talks with Hermione so far...

That was the thing about SG-1, he supposed; they might discover some dangerous stuff out in the galaxy, but they could also make some interesting and useful discoveries in the process (Even if magic had existed on their world already and one of them had already known about it, they'd still been the ones to introduce it to the Stargate program), to say nothing of forming some of the most interesting friendships and alliances in the universe.

It might not make up for the danger presented by Voldemort's addition to the galactic scene as far the politicians were concerned, but Mitchell wouldn't forget about his new discoveries for anything.

Besides, Hermione had mentioned to him that she _really_ wasn't looking forward to learning how the rest of the Ministry would cope with her absence, but she was already taking steps to arrange a formal agreement between her people and the SGC even after this crisis was over; in the long term, Mitchell had a feeling that their lives were still going to have some literal magic in them even once that 'Dark Lord' sucker was down for the count.

* * *

  
"So," Hermione said after a few moments of silent research, Daniel currently reading in one corner of the library while Sam and Hermione read in another, "apart from that wife he mentioned... what's Harry's personal life been like relationship-wise since he left us?"

"What?" Sam said, looking sharply back at Hermione.

"Look, I'm not asking for in-depth details on why each relationship fell apart; I just... I want to know that he wasn't alone, that's all," Hermione clarified, looking awkwardly away from the other woman for a moment before she looked back at her. "I mean, he didn't have _anyone_ when he was younger- the Dursleys only tolerated him as far as they could without actually kicking him out-, and then we were there for him at Hogwarts, and I know he's had you and your team since he started working here, but in between..."

After looking silently at the other woman for a few moments, Sam shrugged.

"Well, you know about Sha're, of course," she said, deciding to begin at the beginning.

"Yeah, how did that happen, anyway?" Hermione asked. "I mean, Harry said that she was a native of the first planet you visited through the Stargate..."

"It wasn't actually a 'love at first sight' thing, if that's what you're asking," Sam said, guessing where her new friend- she might still have some ambiguity about the other woman, but she was a friend of Daniel, and that earned her more than a few 'points' in this situation- was going with her current train of thought. "Actually, when Daniel, General O'Neill- back when he was a colonel- and the rest of the team initially arrived on Abydos, they were taken to be emissaries of the gods, and Sha're was presented to Daniel as... well, as a gift."

Hermione blinked.

"A gift?" she repeated, her eyes narrowing as she looked over at where Daniel was reading another book, oblivious to the fact that he was the current topic of conversation. "His wife was a _gift_?"

"He didn't... _do_ anything with her then," Sam added hastily, guessing that Hermione's thoughts were going where her own thoughts had gone when she'd first heard the full details of Daniel's marriage. "He just didn't explicitly turn her down because he didn't want to affect her reputation among her people, and then he got to know her a bit better, and... well, he'd pretty much recently ruined his academic career on Earth, he didn't have any family that he was still in contact with..."

Her voice trailed off as she noticed the way Hermione was looking at her. "Look, I know that you considered him family, but he really hadn't-"

"I get it; he wanted to get away from it all, so when he got the chance he took it," Hermione said, shaking her head slightly as she dismissed her new friend's comments, clearly trying not to think too much about them. "And... when he came back?"

"Well, he was still married to Sha're for the first three years before her death, so he didn't really do anything then- apart from when he was briefly accidentally addicted to alien technology we encountered during another trip because a local princess developed an obsession with him-, but after that, there hasn't really been anything serious," Sam said (She acknowledged that she still didn't want to really share anything too personal about Daniel with the other woman in case he didn't want her to know it, but that didn't mean that she couldn't reciprocate if Hermione gave her some information). "He's... well, he's attracted a bit of attention once or twice, but it never really went anywhere; other things kept on getting in the way, and he never showed any real sign that he wanted to take them further."

"Yeah, Harry wasn't exactly a 'ladies' man' back at Hogwarts; apart from when he was with Ginny, he only really had a few dates, and a couple of those were because he needed a partner for an event of some sort- there was a ball in fourth year and a kind of club in sixth; the latter one was more of a 'gathering' by a new teacher for those students that he thought had future potential-, and the only one that was really a date-date fell apart because she was too busy coping with her grief over the loss of her last boyfriend," Hermione explained, smiling slightly at the memory- it sounded like one of those things that would be amusing in hindsight even if it wasn't fun at the time- before she shook her head to bring the conversation back on track.

"Ginny was different?" Sam asked, pushing her own ambiguous feelings aside.

"She was the ideal for him then, really," Hermione confirmed. "They each had a unique connection to and understanding of Voldemort- she was possessed by him in her first year due to one of his horcruxes-, she was willing to confront and challenge him on certain issues without making him _feel_ like he was being forced, things like that..."

"She sounds... nice," Sam said, smiling slightly even as she fought down a brief surge of jealousy that she wasn't sure she wanted to analyse in greater depth; this wasn't the time to think about that right now.

"Well," she said, trying to take her mind off the topic, "it's good to know that he had someone back then; some of his relationships since he started working with us... well, let's just say that there's been a couple of difficult ones and leave it at that."

"And... you and him?" Hermione asked, a slightly teasing smile on her face as she looked at the lieutenant colonel.

"Pardon?" Sam asked, looking back at Hermione in surprise.

She understood what the witch was implying, but she just couldn't believe that it was even being brought up at a time like this; Daniel was only at the other end of the building...

"Where do you fit into Daniel's life relationship-wise?" Hermione asked, smiling slightly at the other woman. "I mean, you've been around him constantly for the better part of the last eight or nine years-"

"That doesn't mean anything; he's just a... a really good friend," Sam interjected, trying to ward that question off as she looked pointedly at the other woman; she didn't know why she felt so defensive all of a sudden, but she did know that this wasn't the time for this conversation. "Look, we need to focus; let's... let's just get back to work, OK?"

"I'm just looking out for him, you know," Hermione said after a few moments, even as she continued to read the book in front of her.

"What?" Sam asked, looking over at the witch.

"I just want to know he's going to be OK; I'm not... _interested_ in him or anything, if you were worried about that," Hermione clarified, looking up at Sam with a reassuring smile. "I've known Harry a long time, but I've always just thought of him as my brother; we worried too much about various things back then- we'd have driven each other to early graves from anxiety if we'd dated back then-, and even after we got older..."

"You never... thought about it?" Sam asked, unable to stop her curiousity despite her best intentions.

"No, Harry remains that sometimes-frustrating-but-always-loved brother that I never had more than he's been a potential boyfriend as far as I'm concerned; we're good friends, but... well, I think one reason we were both interested in a Weasley back then was that Ron and Ginny were very _determined_ ; they knew what they wanted and focused on it without worrying too much about extrenuous details," Hermione explained, shrugging slight as she smiled at Sam. "Harry and I worried too much about everything back then; even these days, I think I always need someone who's willing to help me learn how to relax."

"Ah," Sam said, nodding slightly at the comment. For a moment, she thought about voicing her own thoughts that Daniel preferred someone who could challenge him rather than just someone who could help him relax, but that admittedly rather pointless thought- it had been over two decades since Hermione had last seen Daniel; she was almost certainly fully aware that his tastes relationship-wise must have changed- was pushed aside when she heard Daniel close a book.

"That's it," he said, turning around to look at them.

"You have something?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," Daniel confirmed. "I've cross-referenced half a dozen passages that mention the Black Knight, and now there's a series of recurring words and phrases that stand out if you know what you're looking for…"

"You think they're access codes?" Sam asked.

"I think they might be," Daniel said, smiling back at her.

"Well," Sam said, indicating the room leading to the control console with a wave of her hand, "let's go; the sooner the better."

Picking up a couple of the books he'd been reading, Daniel turned to hurry towards the console room, Hermione and Sam close behind him as he walked down the corridor into the still-illuminated room holding the console. Just as he was about to step back up onto the platform, however, Daniel paused, looking uncertainly between the books in his hands and the device in front of him.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked.

"Well..." Daniel said, turning to look uncertainly at his teammate, "what if I'm wrong about this? What if-?"

"The others are out there to take care of the Black Knight; if that thing shows up again, I think they've encountered enough things in their time to handle a renegade holographic knight," Hermione said, smiling encouragingly at her friend. "Harry, we followed you when we were going out into a hostile world to face a potential army of dark witches and wizards; we can handle something that risks us going up against one knight."

"And what if our skills aren't enough?" Daniel asked, looking grimly back at Hermione.

"Look, Cam's ready to pull that sword from the stone if he needs it-" Sam began.

"I get that we're ready based on what we know about past contact with this kind of thing, but we have to accept the fact that this is a completely different scenario," Daniel explained. "In the Avalon cave it was pulling the sword from the stone that caused the Knight to appear in the first place; here, we don't even know if they're connected…"

"Except that we know that... Merlin put the sword there, right?" Hermione put in, only a slight sense of uncertainty on her face as she spoke (Not that Sam could blame her; learning that someone you knew from history was an alien was probably a bit different from learning that about someone you thought was only a myth, particularly since she'd only even learned that aliens existed a few months ago).

"Probably," Daniel admitted.

"Which means it's no ordinary sword, which probably means that it ties in to the Knight _somehow_..." Hermione said, her voice trailing off for a moment before she shrugged helplessly, clearly recognising that she'd run out of useful things to say. "Besides, it's not like we have a choice right now; you said yourself that we need to find out what Merlin might have left here to try and work out where he left that weapon, right?"

"Yeah..." Daniel said, his voice slightly hesitant before he nodded in resolution and stepped onto the platform, Sam and Hermione on either side of him as he opened the books and began to enter a combination after they'd confirmed a notable lack of screaming from above.

"Uh-oh," Daniel said, after he'd pressed down on three of the console controls in front of him.

"What?" Hermione asked, looking anxiously at him. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing happened," Daniel replied, looking back at the woman he would always consider his sister.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Hermione asked, just before the sound of screams coming from the upper areas answered the question for them.

"That's bad," Sam finished, looking apprehensively over at her old and new friends.

"Right then," Daniel said, taking a deep breath as he turned his attention back to the books in front of him, "while they deal with things up there, looks like it's up to me to tackle things down _here_."

He just hoped that he could work out the actual access code in time; as he'd said to the two women earlier, there was only so much that Mitchell, Teal'c, and the others could do against a knight that they didn't know how to stop.


	40. Breaking Merlin's Curse

As soon as the Black Knight appeared, Mitchell didn't need to check with the rest of his group about what his next course of action should be; even if it was pointless, he had to at least _try_ and hold this guy back before he resorted to more elaborate measures.

Deciding to resort to the most obvious method first and proceed from there, Mitchell stepped forward- based on what Hermione and the twins had told him moving away from a wall would be the simplest way of breaking the basic 'disillusionment' charm they were currently under- and fired at the knight, only experiencing a momentary disappointment when the knight's lack of reaction to the bullets as they 'rippled' through its body confirmed that it was just as immune to being shot as its predecessor had been.

"So much for _that_ plan..." he muttered to himself, even as Fred and George stepped away from the wall to take up their own positions on either side of him as the Black Knight did a few fancy sword moves before it began to walk towards them.

Ignoring a comment made by one of the surrounding villagers about the fact that they didn't have a chance, Mitchell dodged past the Black Knight's next attack as the wizards kept up their assault, Teal'c attempting to fire a few rounds from his own weapon before he had to step back as he recognised the uselessness of that action (Mitchell wished that Teal'c had chosen to bring his staff weapon along for this round; it might be obvious, but at least it could double up as a close-range weapon as well).

The spells seemed to slow the Knight down somewhat, but so far there was no sign that it was going to be stopped by anything they were throwing at it; it was moving slower than it had been earlier, but it was still going strong despite having received several of the orange bursts of magical energy that Mitchell recognised as Stunners.

" _How's it going out there_?" Jackson's voice suddenly said over the radio, drawing Mitchell's attention briefly away from the fight as he ducked under the latest blow.

"Uh... not good," Mitchell replied, grabbing at his radio as he tried to crawl away from the still-advancing knight; spells _really_ weren't doing much to that thing, no matter how much magic the new guys tried to hit it with or what kind of spells they tried (If he was right about the assumption that different colours meant different spells and it wasn't just some visual 'trick'). "SG-M's doing _something_ to it, but I wouldn't like to pin my hopes on that; it's not making _that_ much of an impact..."

He hated to make judgements about something he didn't know that much about, but everything he was seeing seemed to make it clear that the wizards were making about as much of an impression on the Knight as his bullets had done earlier.

* * *

  
" _Damnit_!" George yelled, grabbing a sword lying on top of a nearby box and taking a few experimental swings with the weapon as the Knight drew closer to him, only to be met with nothing but frustration when the sword passed through the Knight as though it wasn't there, generating a brief blue glow as it did so without otherwise showing any sign that he'd even done anything. For a moment George relaxed as he swung- if the Black Knight was intangible, it couldn't _touch_ him at the same time-, but then the Knight hit him with another blow that sent him falling back into the mud, and he re-evaluated his original thoughts; this thing didn't seem to obey _any_ laws of magic or science that he knew of...

He wouldn't feel so bad if the villagers had given the impression that they appreciated the effort, but so far everyone else was just standing around watching him, his brother, Remus, Tonks, and Harry's new team get their asses kicked for trying to help them; was it asking too much for people to show some _gratitude_ for trying to stand up to a curse (He accepted Harry's argument that it _wasn't_ an actual 'curse' as they understood it, but everyone here _thought_ it was; surely that amounted to the same thing)?

Glancing around himself, George's eyes widened in shock as he saw the Knight standing over the now-downed Mitchell, the colonel covered in mud as he tried to dodge the Knight's attacks while also getting to his feet. Teal'c tried to charge the Knight from behind as the other SG-M members- nice name for the group, really; he'd need to see about sorting them out some outfits when he had the time-, but it turned around and hit him in the chest with a sword-blow that would have probably been fatal if Teal'c hadn't moved to the side at the last minute. Lupin launched a couple of Disarming spells, but even though the Knight's wrist twitched when the spell struck him he never relinquished his grip on the sword, turning his attention back to the nearer Mitchell with a focused expression despite the lack of any kind of facial expression.

Just when George was beginning to lose faith in whatever reason they had for even trying to stop this Knight, a figure- George thought it looked like Valencia, that girl who'd shown his group where Merlin's library was during their earlier search, but he wouldn't like to swear to it- suddenly ran out of the crowd and ran for the sword in the stone they'd seen upon their arrival, grabbing the sword and pulling it out after a short strain.

Amid the surprised stares of the villagers- not that George could blame them; apparently, whatever world they were on, pulling the sword from the stone still meant _something_ positive-, Valencia turned around and ran back towards Mitchell, throwing him the sword as the Knight advanced on him again. Grabbing the offered weapon, Mitchell neatly blocked the Knight's following blow, following it up by getting back to his feet as he and the Knight began to trade blows with their swords, the two moving with almost equal ease despite Mitchell's lack of experience with such a weapon. Trying to contribute to the fight, Tonks launched another Stunner at the Knight, only for the spell to strike the sword in Mitchell's hand, which briefly glowed with a golden light as it moved towards the Knight, passing through the armoured figure's sword and striking the armour, leaving a small scratch on it-

_A scratch_? Mitchell thought to himself, leaping back from the Knight's next blow as he stared at the now-damaged armour, his thoughts racing at the implications of this unexpected turn of events. No _way_...

Then again, if Merlin the Ancient and Merlin the wizard _were_ the same person, who was to say that he hadn't found some way to bring Ancient science and Earth magic together? 'Charging' a sword with magic- for lack of a better expression to describe what had just happened; the spell must have given the sword a kind of boost that allowed it to disrupt the knight's 'matrix' or something like that- might be a fairly minor trick compared to some things he could have done, but considering that Mitchell had no idea how he might do anything like that- coupled with the fact that it was the only thing he had that could come _close_ to solving this whole mess-, he supposed he couldn't complain...

" _Do that again_!" he yelled, stepping back from the Knight and holding the sword out to his side. To their credit, SG-M quickly realised what he meant, as all four of them launched further spells at the sword, the blade quickly glowing a brilliant blue as Mitchell raised it above his head and brought it down on the Knight once more. Just as with last time, the sword in his hand passed through the Knight's own weapon before it struck the Knight, cutting through the armoured being's chest with a powerful blow that practically tore the Knight in half. A brilliant light emerged from the now-large scar on the Knight's chest, and then it vanished in a burst of light, leaving Mitchell, Teal'c and SG-M staring at the area where the Knight had been with a relieved smile.

"Whoa..." Mitchell said, studying the sword in his hands as its previous glow faded down to its original level. "Now _that_ was cool."

"Tell me about it..." Tonks said, shaking her head as she looked at the object in Mitchell's hand. "I mean, I don't really get _what_ just happened to that thing, but that was-"

" _Uh, hello_?" Hermione's voice said, the normally cool Minister of Magic sounding surprisingly flustered at something. " _We need you all back in the control room; something... interesting just happened_."

* * *

  
As they walked back into the room with the large control console underneath the library, it didn't take long for Mitchell, Teal'c, and the rest of SG-M to realise what had changed. Not only was the room now filled with piles of treasure that resembled what Mitchell and Teal'c had discovered in Glastonbury Tor in their original visit there- although this was almost certainly holographic-, but there was also the addition of an elderly man in white robes standing at the other end of the room, smiling slightly at them.

"Oh my God..." Lupin whispered, his eyes wide as he stared at the figure before them. "Is that...?"

"Merlin?" Daniel said, smiling over at his father's friend. "Yeah, it's him... or, at least, it's a _version_ of him."

"A version of him?" Fred repeated, his awe replaced by confusion at Daniel's apparently strange choice of phrase. "How's this a version of him?"

"I am a holographic recreation of the one whom you know as Merlin, Fred Weasley," the figure said, looking at Fred with a slight smile. "I have been programmed with the knowledge and awareness of my creator, and to respond to your queries as he would do if he were here, although I possess only a certain amount of his knowledge on various topics-"

"Hold on; if you're a hologram of Merlin, how were you... activated?" Sam asked, clearly uncertain if the being before her would appreciate being reminded of his fundamentally artificial nature. "I mean, Daniel and Hermione were trying to enter some possible passwords, but none of the earlier ones worked, and we hadn't even finished entering the latest one when you appeared..."

"The reason for that is simple," Merlin said, smiling at her. "I was programmed to activate only when magic and science combined to end the curse of the Black Knight that I had created to protect my work. This ensured that the library, and the full secrets of the archive that I can access, would only fall into the hands of those who could use the knowledge and information that I possessed; if not, they would only possess parts of my legacy, and much of my knowledge would be lost forever."

"Ah," Mitchell said, looking briefly at the sword in his hand before he smiled over at the hologram. "Interesting plan."

"Uh... would these 'topics' you can tell us about include the origin of magic on Earth?" Hermione asked, looking at Merlin with a slightly hopeful smile. "I mean, I get that we've all got a lot of things to do right now-"

"A thirst for knowledge is something that should always be explored if you possess the time to develop it, Miss Granger," Merlin said, smiling over at Hermione. "Do you have your own theories about why your world possesses magic where no other world can make the same claim?"

"Well... we _did_ wonder if the lack of naquadah on Earth meant that your people did something that resulted in naquadah being turned _into_ magic..." Hermione began, looking slightly awkwardly at the ground as she spoke (Not that Daniel or anyone else could blame her; it wasn't exactly every day that a witch or wizard got the chance to ask Merlin himself for information about the very _origin_ of magic).

"An excellent and accurate assessment of what took place, my dear," Merlin said, smiling in approval at Hermione. "Our attempts to enhance the properties of Earth's naquadah to increase its use as a power source instead resulted in us altering the very nature of the planet's naquadah supply, transforming all raw naquadah on the planet- the treated naquadah that we used to construct what you know as the Stargates was naturally immune to such effects- into a non-tangible source of energy that permeated Earth's biosphere and caused mutative effects in areas where naquadah had been particularly concentrated in its natural form."

"Mutative effects?" Tonks repeated in confusion.

"He means that magic changed creatures that lived in areas where there had been large amounts of naquadah before their experiments transformed it into its new state; that probably accounted for the origins of unicorns or dragons, along with... whatever else you might have," Sam clarified, accepting a confirming nod from the wizards around her before she looked thoughtfully back at Merlin. "So... magic developed on Earth... by _accident_?"

"Essentially, yes," Merlin confirmed, smiling at Sam. "Once my people had established that there was no way to undo what had been done, we spent many years after the failure of our experiment learning everything we could about this new phenomenon, taking in those with the potential to wield magic and training them so that they would not hurt themselves or others with their gifts and discovering ways to conceal this power from those who would not understand its nature or might fear those who could control it where they could not. Despite our best efforts, however, we were unable to determine how we could successfully harness that power to be used on other worlds; those of us who possessed the necessary genetic sequence to wield magic could use it on any world we wished, but we could not make other planets nurture magic on their own, and attempts to duplicate the experiment that altered naquadah in such a manner would have relied on exact duplication of near-random formulas that we never felt comfortable even attempting them."

"So... does that mean Earth's the only planet where magic can exist?" Lupin asked uncertainly. "I mean, from what you've said, you couldn't make it appear anywhere else, but we've been using magic away from Earth without any problems..."

"It would be more accurate to say that Earth is the only planet where magic can _manifest_ on its own," Merlin clarified. "Should you or any of your fellows relocate to another world, you would retain your magic on your new planet, and your children would still possess the ability to wield magic themselves for several generations at least- magic at that point would be about what you could generate yourself rather than what you acquired from your environment-, but nobody else would be able to manifest such powers on their own; contact with naquadah in your proximity, even just the amount in the Stargate, would help you to sustain magic to a degree that it could be passed on to your children, but the magic would be limited to your families rather than manifesting in others."

"Ah, so no muggle-borns popping up on other worlds," George said, exchanging glances with his twin before the two shrugged. "Well, that clears that up."

"Yeah, and while I'm grateful for you answering that question for us, that still leaves us with another thing we need to know right now," Daniel said, looking apologetically at Merlin. "I don't suppose you can tell us anything about where you hid this... weapon against the Ori we've heard about?"

"Ah, you seek the Sangraal," Merlin said, nodding at Daniel in understanding.

"The what?" Fred asked.

"Hold on a minute..." Daniel said, looking thoughtfully at the hologram.

"Back up a minute; the Sangraal?" Mitchell repeated, looking sharply at Daniel, interrupting whatever train of thought the archaeologist had been pursuing. "As in, the thing that you told us was actually the _Holy Grail_? Everything I've ever seen says that was a cup!"

"Actually, the notion that the grail was a cup or chalice, particularly the one used by Christ at the last supper, was... well, it was a late addition to the myth," Daniel explained, smiling slightly in amusement at the suddenly incredulous expression on Hermione's face as she looked sharply over at him; his knowledge of alien technology and history was one thing, but clearly she was understandably surprised at the idea that Harry Potter could know something about something from _Earth_ that she hadn't been aware of herself. "See, on rare accounts, it's described variously as a dish or platter, or, in the case of Von Eschenbach and other Middle East influenced chroniclers, as a stone that fell from the Heavens."

"The stone itself is merely the focusing crystal of the complete device," Merlin said, smiling slightly as he looked at them. "What you seek is not here, but you can find it if you wish; Arthur's Knights sought it in the distant lands of Castianna, Sahal and Vagonbray."

"When you say lands, you mean... _planets_ , right?" Hermione asked, looking quizzically at the hologram.

"Of course," Merlin confirmed with a nod. "What else would I mean?"

"I just wanted to make sure I wasn't making any assumptions based on inexperience; I only found out about the Stargates recently..." Hermione said with a slightly awkward shrug.

"Hold on; names aren't going to be much good without addresses..." Daniel began, looking uncertainly at Merlin.

"I'm sorry; I cannot give you that information," Merlin said with a shrug.

"Huh?" George said, looking at Merlin in confusion.

"What I know is intended to guide you to the next stage of your quest for the Sangraal, but I cannot give you all of the information that you seek myself," Merlin explained, regret on his face as he looked at the red-headed wizard. "I was programmed to respond and interact with you as Merlin should, but I was not given the full details of where he finally left the Sangraal for safe keeping; if someone should come here with less than noble intentions and sufficient knowledge of our technology, my creator could not take the risk that they would be able to uncover such information in my databanks."

"Ah," Mitchell said, nodding in grim understanding as he looked over at his teammates. "So much for _that_ hope, eh?"

"Well, it's not like it's impossible for us to work out the truth, anyway," Daniel said, indicating the door to the main library room with a slight smile. "There's bound to be something in his books if we keep looking; it's not like it would be _impossible_ to find something relevant..."

"No, just bloody difficult," Fred muttered, shaking his head as he glanced upwards at the room where the various books that Merlin had assembled or written over his lifetime awaited them. " _Damn_ , this is going to take some time..."

"Look at it this way," Lupin said, smiling encouragingly at his friends. "We just defeated the curse of the Black Knight; I'm sure that we can convince the villagers to let us stick around long enough to do more research on this particular topic."

Even as Daniel smiled at that thought, he wished that he could stop his subconscious from contemplating the train of thought that had just occurred to him.

The idea of trying to lure Voldemort into an ambush on this planet might be promising in theory- even Voldemort's arrogance wouldn't be enough for him to reject the chance to gain control of the library of Merlin himself-, but setting up a situation where he would deliberately endanger innocent people just to capture his enemy was crossing a line that he'd established for himself long ago, and he wouldn't compromise that line just because it would be easier.

Wherever Voldemort was out there, he and Daniel would face each other sooner or later; even with Goa'uld genetic knowledge, Voldemort was too strapped for resources to stay away from _all_ of the worlds they'd visited so far, particularly after the collapse of the Goa'uld empire and Hestia's recent extraction (Even if he doubted that Bellatrix would know or be willing to share anything useful with them even with Hestia gone; given how insane Bellatrix was, she may have considered it an honour to share her mind with a 'god').

When the time came for them to face Voldemort again, he'd be there; until then, they had another avenue to explore in their search for a weapon against the Ori, and he was going to try and explore it as thoroughly as possible.


	41. Plans of Attack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some reference here to the episode "A Matter of Time" and the 'sequel' novels "A Matter of Honour" and "The Cost of Honour"; if you haven't read them, relevant plot information will be included in the chapter itself. To cover the essentials now, I'll just say that SG-10- who were trapped on a planet falling into a black hole in the second-season episode "A Matter of Time"- were rescued by SG-1 using questionably-acquired anti-gravity technology in the two novels mentioned previously

"Welcome back, SG-1 and SG-M," Landry said, smiling as the two teams stepped off the ramp leading up to the Stargate, the slight smiles on their faces assuring the SGC's commanding officer that at least something had gone right for the SGC recently. "How did things go in Merlin's library?"

"Well, sir, we've still got some work to do before we track down the Sangraal, but we _do_ have a few ideas about where to go next," Mitchell said, smiling at the general. "It's a bit of a long story, so we should probably save it for the debriefing; we've picked up quite a few interesting facts since we left here..."

"As much as I'd enjoy hearing what those facts are, we may not have the time to talk about that," Landry said, looking grimly at the two teams. "SG-10 have failed to check in on their last mission, and we can't even dial the Stargate to confirm if they're still on the planet or not; we're prepping the _Odyssey_ to pick them up, but once you've finished the current briefing, I think we'd all feel better knowing SG-1 is on the case."

"Understood, sir," Mitchell said, nodding at the base's commanding officer even as he exchanged concerned glances with the rest of the team.

SG-M might just be professionally interested- as much as they were fitting into the team dynamic with Jackson to serve as a 'bridge' between their two worlds (Even if most of the wizards probably still thought of Jackson as 'Potter'; Mitchell still wondered a bit about how he'd come up with his alias), they still didn't really _know_ anyone at the SGC apart from him-, but the other three-quarters of SG-1 were obviously more emotionally invested in that team than anyone else. The stories of how Colonel O'Neill had defied orders and risked court-martial and worse just to lead the team in a mission to rescue Major Henry Boyd, Captain Michael Watts and Lieutenant Jessica McLeod was still legendary among the SGC, with many saying that one of the few things that really riled SG-1 these days was the thought of the team they'd risked so much to save being in serious jeopardy again.

Whatever had happened to SG-10, Mitchell already knew that SG-1's remaining members from that time would accept no quarter in finding a way to get them home; they'd gone through too much trying to save those guys originally to abandon them now.

* * *

  
"So," Landry said, looking between the various team members gathered around him as he contemplated what he'd just been told about their latest mission, "in a nutshell, Merlin told you three places where we _might_ find this weapon he created, but he didn't tell you the addresses of the planets in question and there's no obvious way to find those addresses apart from trying to read through everything in that library?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Fred said with a casual shrug. "But, on the bright side, the villagers seemed willing to let us go back after we took out that Black Knight sucker; at least we don't have to worry about _that_ kind of issue."

"It's certainly encouraging, I'll admit," Landry said, looking at Fred with a slight smile of acknowledgement before he turned back to address the rest of the team. "Unfortunately, as I previously mentioned, we've got more immediate problems right now; SG-10 were supposed to check in a couple of hours ago, and we haven't even been able to dial the Stargate of the planet they were on to try and find out what they've discovered."

"What was their assignment?" Lupin asked, looking curiously at the general.

"They were investigating our recent discovery that the planet they were visiting was the origin of Kassa, a highly addictive corn-like food that SG-3 found on another planet," General Landry explained. "Doctor Lee's tests have confirmed that the plant contains a highly addictive, artificially engineered psycho-stimulant; in other words, someone made it. I would have waited for you to get back, but when Hagrid informed me of your current situation I thought it would be better to send someone else in case you took too long to get back; SG-10 were available and willing, and so we sent them, but we haven't heard back since."

"Right..." Mitchell said, nodding in grim understanding. "Do we know anything about who's responsible for creating this stuff?"

"We thought that it might be the Ori, but that idea didn't last long," Landry continued

"They've got nothing to gain by making the population addicted to something like this, but we had no idea who was really behind it, hence why we sent SG-10 to investigate the possible source with the new chip implant beacons."

"The new what?" Tonks asked.

"It's a new development Doctor Lee's been working on since Tegalus; his idea was that we should instal small chips in the bodies of SG-teams to make it easier for them to be picked up by the transporters in the event of anyone being captured by hostile powers," Landry explained. "SG-1 would have been the first to receive it- your temporary captivity might have been averted thanks to Doctor Jackson's... magic... but we can't always depend on that to get us out of a tight spot-, but you went away to the library before Lee had finished testing them, and SG-10 were given the chips before they left just in case."

"So... all we need is to get a ship to the planet and we can find them?" Mitchell asked.

"Precisely," Landry replied. "The _Odyssey_ \- our new 304-class- is almost ready for departure, and Colonel Emerson's completely in favour of their first mission being the recovery of SG-10, but that doesn't mean we wouldn't appreciate every advantage; if you can go along, we can at least be sure that they'll have excellent tactical assistance if the situation turns out to be more complicated than just a damaged Stargate."

"Sounds like a plan," Mitchell said, nodding in agreement at General Landry.

"Good," Landry said, nodding back at the lieutenant colonel before he turned to address the rest of the team. "You have a couple of hours until _Odyssey_ is ready for departure; get the necessary equipment together and get ready."

"Check," Mitchell said, nodding in agreement as the group left the room, the assorted teammates and wizards heading to the nearest empty office to discuss the situation in more detail.

* * *

  
"So," George asked, looking curiously over at Daniel, Sam and Teal'c after they had all gathered in their chosen office, "given how you reacted when you learned that _they_ were the ones in danger, I have to ask; is there something particularly special about SG-10?"

"Apart from the fact that we once risked our lives, careers, and freedom to save them from a black hole?" Daniel said, smiling slightly grimly at the memory of that time even as he answered George's question.

The aftermath might have been a successful mission- the SGC was restored to its usual command structure, the Arxanti were saved, the Kinahhi would have to rebuild, the _sheh-fet_ had been permanently dismantled, and SG-10 could return to their lives-, but the only thing worse than coming back to discover that Kinsey was now at least indirectly in charge of the SGC due to a covert coup he'd carried out in their absence had been that time when Hogwarts was under Umbridge's control back in his fifth year; the thought that everything they believed in could be taken over _that_ easily...

"Uh... a black what?" Fred asked, drawing Daniel's thoughts away from that time period as he focused on the current conversation.

"A black hole," Sam explained, looking over at the twin with a slight smile. "Basically, it's the result of a star reaching a certain mass and collapsing in on itself when it becomes too heavy to support itself, creating a singularity that sucks everything in around it once it passes an area known as the event horizon..."

Noting the blank stares she was starting to receive from the twins, she waved a hand apologetically. "That's not important right now; what's relevant is that, if a planet should fall into a black hole, it alters the rate at which the planet perceives time passing around itself, with the result being that anyone on the planet when it falls in cannot escape through the Stargate as from their perspective the gate isn't active long enough for them to get through."

"Ah," George said, nodding in grim understanding. "So... SG-10 got stuck on a planet with a black hole near it... and... you couldn't go and get them in a _ship_ because of that... singularity thing?"

"Indeed, George Weasley," Teal'c confirmed. "We were only able to recover SG-10 five years after the original incident when we made contact with the Kinahhi two years ago, as they possessed anti-gravity technology that could protect a ship from the time dilation effects of the black hole long enough for us to land and recover SG-10 before the planet they were on passed the threshold of the event horizon."

"Uh... neat?" Fred said, looking slightly uncertainly at Teal'c, clearly unsure if he should be particularly impressed at that feat (Not that Daniel could blame him; the twins were so used to doing everything with magic that they probably hadn't done that much research into conventional muggle technology, and there was so much alien technology to learn about at the moment that they probably hadn't had time to really learn what was and wasn't possible).

"And your rescue of them was... difficult?" Tonks asked.

"We defied orders, risked court-martial on our return, and found out that one of our greatest political enemies had taken control of the SGC until we came back to reveal that the 'allies' he'd recruited to get that kind of power were actually planning what amounts to a coup," Sam said, looking grimly over at the auror.

"Think Voldemort's attempt to covertly take control of the Ministry and you're pretty much there," Daniel finished for his teammate; given that Umbridge hadn't exactly been subtle about her attempts to take control of Hogwarts for the Ministry's sake, he didn't think that example counted.

"People can do that _without_ magic?" George asked.

"Right bit of influence in the right place at the right time can work wonders," Mitchell said grimly, nodding at the Weasley twin. "Just because magic probably makes that kind of thing easier doesn't mean people can't be manipulated into it naturally; bit of paperwork edited to make people or things look a certain way can _really_ work wonders with the right people."

"On the topic of attempting the apparently impossible," Hermione said, looking over at Daniel as she spoke, "do you think General Landry would object to me going back to Camelot to see what I can find in the library?"

"Huh?" Mitchell said, looking sharply over at her at this sudden twist in the conversation. "But-"

"Look," Hermione said, looking at the colonel with an apologetic expression, "if we're going to find this 'Sangraal' thing, we should probably get started as soon as possible. From what we've heard, it sounds like SG-10 could use help if something's preventing you from even dialling the Stargate on their planet in the first place, but you probably don't need _all_ of us right now, and we don't want to start giving your superiors the impression that you need magic to pull you out of the metaphorical fire and give them a reason to start downsizing this place or something like that; given that Merlin is a figure from our history, it makes sense for me to try and see if I can find anything in that library that a muggle research team might miss..."

"Try looking for anything about Gwaine," Daniel said, looking over at his old friend with a sudden smile of inspiration.

"Gwaine?" Lupin repeated, looking slightly sceptically at Daniel. "What does he have to do with this?"

"It hit me when I thought about what Merlin told us about the planets the Knights went to; I just needed a little time to remember it," Daniel explained. "In one of the earliest incarnations of Gawain in myth, an old Welsh tale tells of how Gawain, AKA Gwalchmei, went on a quest to help rescue a lost love. I took a quick double-check while we were going through medical- I asked one of the nurses to get me my laptop after the check-over was finished-, and the legend says that Sir Gawain visited several lands over the course of his adventure, including a place called _Gwlad Gan Brenhinol Gwir_ , which is Welsh for 'Land of Royal Truth'. Translate that into Ancient, and you get 'Verus Gen Bree'- Vagonbrei."

"Right..." Hermione said, nodding thoughtfully before she assumed a more enthusiastic smile. "OK, that gives me something to start with; so... you think that, if I can focus on anything with Gwaine's name in the title, we _might_ manage to find something useful there?"

"I can't make any promises, but like you said, it's something to start with," Daniel replied.

"Trust me, he's good at those kind of leaps," Sam said, smiling slightly as she looked at the Minister of Magic. "When it comes to archaeological matters, I don't know anyone whose research skills are as good as Daniel's when it comes to making unlikely connections."

"Right," Hermione said, clapping her hands together as she looked over at the others, privately smiling at both Sam's praise of Daniel and Daniel's slightly awkward expression at his friend's high opinion of him; the more she saw of them, the more she had to wonder just how many people were in denial about their real feelings in this situation. "Remus, Tonks, could you give me a hand in the search; I get the impression that Fred and George will be more likely to be useful helping your research team coming up with a few additional tricks- we might as well stop just fighting together and see if we can bring our respective talents together for more than just the occasional fight, and... well, no offence to Hagrid, but if we're using a ship..."

Daniel nodded in grim understanding; as much as he would have liked to have his friend along for this mission, it just wasn't practical to keep Hagrid confined and uncomfortable in a ship for that long when he might not be able to make an individual difference to the situation.

"So... wait a minute; you want us to try and invent _weapons_?" Fred asked.

"It's not like most of what you've developed over the years couldn't be used to do some damage in a fight; all we're asking you to do is adapt your creativity somewhat," Hermione said, smiling encouragingly at them. "You've been out-of-the-box thinkers since you were at school- your low grades were only because you couldn't bother to apply yourself-"

"Do you have to keep going _on_ about the grade thing?" George asked with an exasperated groan. "We get that you're our sister in all but blood, but..."

As George trailed off, Daniel didn't need to look around to realise that the same awkward expression now covering his features was on Fred and Hermione's faces, as well as his own.

It might have been over twenty years, but the damage Voldemort had done to the Weasleys in that war would never really go away, and comments like George's just brought up the memory of a time when Daniel was still Harry and he and Hermione seemed destined to become new members of the Weasley clan...

Well, if there was a reality out there where that had happened and that world's Harry Potter had gone on to marry his Ginny, Daniel wished that Harry the best; right now, he was here, Ginny was dead, and he would just have to cope with that.

"Well," Sam said at last, recognising the need to break the silence that had settled over the group as she looked awkwardly at the twins, "we should probably get on with things; I'll introduce you two to the science department and... show you some things we might be able to use- I've had a couple of ideas about how we could adapt technology to use some of the spells Daniel's demonstrated, but there hasn't been time to put anything into practise yet..."

As the group started to leave the office, Hermione hung back to look at Daniel, briefly holding the door closed behind her after Mitchell had walked out into the corridor.

"Should I read something into the fact that you have feelings for a woman that smart?" she asked with a slightly teasing smile.

"You were focused on learning what was already known to someone else, while Sam has a thirst for discovering things that nobody on Earth had yet; you're different enough for there to be no issues like that, I promise," Daniel said, smiling reassuringly at the woman he would always consider a sister before he turned his attention back to the matter at hand. "Let's go; we've all got our missions, and it's time to get on with them."

It might have been an abrupt way to end the conversation, but this wasn't the time for Daniel to get into another debate with Hermione about whatever theories she might have about his personal life; things were going to be complicated in that area for the foreseeable future, but there was something that they could do about the Sangraal and SG-10's predicament right now, and it was important to focus on that instead.


	42. Questioning Nerus

As he and George stood impatiently alongside General Landry outside the room that they had been informed was a prison cell, in the middle of what he and his brother had been informed was 'Area 51', Fred could only hope that this was going to be as straightforward as it had sounded in theory.

With Harry and the rest of SG-1 having left in the _Odyssey_ already- and _God_ , what was it about Harry and dropping into cool situations; the man left the wizarding world to study pyramids and he ended up going to other planets?-, and Hermione having taken Tonks and Lupin back to Camelot to do some additional research, it was left to the two of them to ensure that the SGC still had access to magic if things took a turn for the worse (Fred stopped that line of thought before he could take it too far; as Hermione had pointed out, the SGC had managed without magic for eight years already).

A part of him wished that Hagrid was still here, both for company purposes and the intimidation potential offered by the man's sheer size, but he knew that the giant's return to Britain had been necessary. After all, as much as he hated to admit it, none of them were kids any more; they had responsibilities to other people back home, so they had to ensure that the relevant people knew how the situation was progressing and help establish the necessary alibis for anyone who might need them.

Hagrid might not be the most discreet person when talking to people he knew and trusted in other matters- he'd certainly learned to be more careful after the incident that resulted in Charlie getting custody of 'Norberta'-, but he'd become a lot better at keeping secrets compared to how he'd been in the past, and his friendship with Harry had left him with a lot of contacts in the Hogwarts graduating classes of that time frame...

"You sure this is a good idea?" Fred asked, looking awkwardly at the general in an attempt to take his mind off that particular train of thought; he was getting into a very unique situation, but this wasn't the time to start potentially panicking about whatever responsibilities he would have to face up to right now.

"Honestly, I'm not," Landry said, shaking his head grimly in response to Fred's question, his gaze still fixed on the door in front of them. "However, he's the best person available to ask any Stargate-related questions, and we need that information if we're going to get anywhere; that Stargate's been out of action too long for this to be some kind of dialling glitch, and that recent information package from the Tok'ra definitely provided a few answers, but I'm stuck at what we're going to do if it does turn out to be true or why anyone would do something like that in the first place."

"Yeah; I mean, I get what you told me about some ships being able to use Stargates when they're taken on board in the right place, but who'd benefit from nicking those things when they're already standing around so many planets already?" George asked with a slight shrug, before he glanced in a sceptically inquiring at Landry. "On that topic, I _really_ don't get why we needed to get all that food down here..."

"Nerus has a notorious appetite and hasn't eaten more than the essentials needed for survival since he was locked up; if we don't have something he wants, he might not tell us anything, and I don't feel inclined to placate him while we ait if he accepts the offer," Landry said. "Trust me, I don't like it any more than you do, but he's our best chance at getting information about this current mess."

"Want us to see about whipping up some Veritaserum if he doesn't tell us anything quickly enough?" Fred asked, looking at Landry with an inquiring smile.

"That's the... truth potion, right?" Landry asked, looking uncertainly at the twins before they nodded in confirmation of his question, prompting him to give them a brief smile of gratitude. "I'll keep that in mind, but I'd rather not start relying on that kind of thing; as Minister Granger said, we don't want to give anyone the impression that we're relying on you too much."

"Fair enough," Fred said- he could certainly appreciate the desire for some independence after his family's lessons on the importance of self-sufficiency-, before he turned his attention back to the door. "Anyway, shall we?"

In response, Landry hit the necessary switch to open the door and the three men walked into the room, their eyes quickly falling on the overweight man with thinning grey hair in drab prison garb sitting behind two more sets of bars, looking at the door in front of him with a solemn expression.

"General," the man said, a slightly whimsical tone to his voice that unnervingly reminded Fred and George of Umbridge (There weren't many people who everyone felt deserved Azkaban, but even Hermione had agreed that the former Undersecretary had deserved prison after her actions while at Hogwarts, even if she had banned the use of the Dementor's Kiss as a punishment). "They told me you were coming, but I didn't believe them. I said, 'I don't believe you'."

Landry didn't bother replying until a guard had opened the next door to the cell, allowing him and the two Weasleys to enter it while remaining slightly distant from the bars that kept Nerus separated from the outside world.

"Well, here I am," Landry said, smiling briefly at Nerus before he indicated the twins on either side of him. "These are Fred and George Weasley; they're... consultants."

"Interesting to meet you, I am sure," Nerus said, before his expression went from mild curiosity to more obvious disappointment as he looked at Landry in an almost pleading manner, his voice trembling slightly as he spoke. "You... come... to visit a... condemned prisoner... empty-handed?"

"You're not a condemned prisoner, Nerus," Landry said in a dismissively jovial voice, his tone becoming grimmer as he walked up to the next layer of bars in response to the dejection on the Goa'uld's face. "But if you tell me what I need to know, I'll arrange a feast, the likes of which you have not seen since you set foot on this planet."

"A feast?" Nerus said, his voice weak at the possibility of food after so long subsisting on the basic prison rations provided.

"I do not use the word lightly," Landry said resolutely.

"Nor do I," Nerus replied, shaking his head briefly in an attempt to be casual, even as his anticipation at the offer of food was obvious to all of his current visitors. "How may I be of service, my dear General?"

"Someone out there is stealing Stargates," Landry replied, prompting a contemplative expression to appear on Nerus's face. "We need to know who, how, and why."

"Stealing them?" Nerus said, licking his lips as he contemplated this new information.

"Beamed right off the planets with Asgard technology as far as we know," Landry confirmed.

"Well," Nerus said, looking thoughtfully off to the side of his cell before turning back to face Landry, "that must be maddening for you."

"Trust us, it is," Fred said, deciding that he might as well show that he and George weren't just there for security purposes. "We've got an idea or two about who it is, but we're fairly sure that you can give us a few more answers to our questions than what we've put together so far."

"But such a quandary must be worth more to you than a single, solitary, indulgent meal," Nerus said, an anticipatory smile on his face as he shifted his position in his chair. "Perhaps we could discuss my dietary requirements on a more permanent-?"

"Just so you know, we're taking one item off the menu for every minute that you spend trying to 'negotiate', and there's only so much we're willing to put on that menu anyway," George interjected, his eyes narrowing as he looked at Nerus. "Care to start talking now?"

He had to admit, it was moments like this that helped him understand the appeal of the 'good-cop/bad-cop' routine his dad had told them about from his experiments watching muggle movies and 'telly' shows when he was working on getting such things working without being hampered by magic; letting the other guy imagine what you could do to them _was_ kind of 'fun' in its way...

"Can we talk over appetizers?" Nerus asked, obviously desperate as Landry indicated to the outside guard that he should open the outer cell door.

"We'll be back," Fred said, as he and his brother stood up and followed Landry out of the cell.

"Or maybe we won't," George added, pausing in the door to look back at Nerus with a reflective shrug that wouldn't give the Goa'uld any real idea what the joke-shop owner was actually planning to do to him. "We're fickle like that."

"General?" Nerus called after the three men as the door closed behind them, leaving Fred and George smiling at each other before Landry turned to look at them.

"Did you have to do that?" he asked, indicating the cell door as he studied them with a pointed stare, his voice low as they walked away so that Nerus couldn't hear them. "I get that you... have your way of doing things, but that kind of manner isn't exactly going to give Nerus- or any IOA who might be watching the tapes later- the impression that you're professionals at _anything_..."

"Act weird and people don't know what to expect; we figured the best way to make sure he stays off-balance was to give the impression that _we're_ off-balance," Fred clarified with a casual shrug. "Right now that guy doesn't know who we are, why we're here or what we could do to him; keep him guessing, and he might be more inclined to talk so that you're not tempted to let us have free reign against him."

Despite his military training leaving him disinclined to take advice from people who were fundamentally amateurs- he respected that Doctor Jackson and Minister Granger had trusted them enough to bring them to the SGC in the first place, but these two men did own a _joke shop_ , after all-, Landry smiled in agreement at the twins' assessments.

"Fair point," he said, before his eyes narrowed. "Just... don't give him one of those 'Canary Cream' things or anything like that until we've got some useful information out of him..."

"Or if we're sure he's not going to give us anything useful using your methods?" George asked with a slight shrug. "I mean, it doesn't last that long, but getting turned into a bird _can_ throw you off your game if you're not expecting it..."

"I'm sure," Landry said, nodding briefly at his new associate, working to suppress the smile he felt at the thought of Nerus turning into a canary for any length of time.

He might not want to give away the existence of magic to the Goa'uld any time soon, but that didn't mean he couldn't fantasise about the possibilities of forcing them to experience _real_ power after they'd spent so long pretending...

* * *

  
As he stared at Nerus as the other man chewed his way through the provided feast, George tried to remember the last time he'd seen someone who wasn't Ron eat so much food; even with his youngest brother as a precedent- as much as he missed the guy, he couldn't deny that food bills had become much easier to pay now that he wasn't around-, the idea that Nerus could apparently consider himself capable of eating an entire turkey after everything else he'd consumed so far was just... _ridiculous_.

"General," Nerus said, his mouth full as he held up a leg from the plate that was currently sitting on the table in his cell, "this chicken is most plump and delicious. You spoil me, General."

"It's called turkey," George said, exchanging brief glances with his brother at Nerus's ignorance- they hadn't seen this kind of social ignorance for years; after Hermione became Minister, she'd overseen a fairly extensive 'muggle awareness program' to encourage wizards to stop seeing themselves as being 'superior' to muggles- as Landry moved a few folding chairs from the side of the room to take up position in front of the cell.

"Turkey?" Nerus asked, as Landry and the two wizards sat down casually on the chairs.

"Another rare delicacy," Fred commented; given that they were dealing with an alien, they might as well let him think that they were giving him more of a treat than they really were in case it encouraged him to be more talkative later.

"Well, I must have more turkey," Nerus said, briefly yelling as he held up the leg before he burst into laughter, putting down the leg to pick up a soft pretzel instead. "What's this?"

"I'm losing patience, Nerus," Landry said, glaring ominously at the Goa'uld as George and Fred reached slightly into their inner coat pockets.

"Well, you already know who it is," Nerus said, apprehension momentarily obvious on his face as he looked at the twins' currently-concealed hands, evidently wondering what kind of weapon they might draw on him.

"So it is Ba'al," Landry said (George wished he'd read up a bit on what that 'Ba'al' guy was actually meant to be capable of apart from the fact that he'd been involved in that whole brainwashing thing they'd tackled a couple of weeks back; he'd just been assuming that old snake-features- coming up with nicknames for Voldemort after his death _had_ been rather fun- would have shown more of an interest in doing something rather than letting everyone else keep carrying out their evil plots, but he supposed it was hard to take control of a galaxy after you'd spent so long focusing on a few countries).

"Of course it's Ba'al," Nerus said, an exasperated expression on his face even as his voice seemed to express amusement that they needed to ask the question in the first place. "Who else would it be?"

"Why would he do something like this?" Fred asked, staring pointedly at Nerus. "And _don't_ try and insult us by suggesting that we should know already- if nothing else, for all you know we're just checking to see if your theories match ours-, or we'll be taking away your food for wasting our time."

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Nerus said, shaking his head urgently despite the slightly rambling nature of Fred's 'threat'. "There is no need for you to do such a thing, Mr Weasley; I have no intention of insulting those who would provide such a glorious bounty!"

"Good to know," Fred said with a brief nod. "So, what's he trying to do? Sell the Stargates back to the people he nicked them from, or just set them up on new planets so he's got some secret base only he knows about?"

Despite the fact that he'd just been guessing, Fred was pleasantly surprised when Nerus actually stopped eating after that last comment- it was definitely the second theory that was correct, he reflected; Nerus had actually looked slightly amused at the idea of the first suggestion-, looking at him with wide-eyed surprise.

"You... you are correct, Mr Weasley," he said, his unwilling surprise at that deduction evident on his face, a new edge of respect in his voice as he looked at the other man. "I am... impressed."

"My brother and I are good at thinking outside the box; it's why we're here in the first place," George said, shrugging slightly as the three men continued to stare at Nerus. "So, what else can you tell us?"

"Well," Nerus continued, swallowing his food as he smiled slightly at them, "some time ago, Ba'al came to me looking for a way to rebuild in the event that the Jaffa ever succeeded in conquering the Goa'uld. Now I had been studying the Stargate system for months, to help you defeat the Replicators, incidentally, and I stumbled upon a way to disable the correlative update program."

"So you could move a Stargate and not have it transmit its new position to the rest of the network," Landry concluded, providing Fred and George with the necessary information about what that meant without actually telling them what it meant.

"Precisely," Nerus said with a smile. "So it would seem that Ba'al has put my research into practice."

"Thus allowing him to create his own territory completely outside of anyone else's control because nobody knows the new Stargate addresses..." Fred said, trying not to show how relieved he was when Nerus and Landry nodded in confirmation; he'd definitely found the Stargates interesting when Harry had told them about the devices in question- it was almost ironic, really; their former Seeker had never been an actual teacher at any point in his life, and yet he'd always given them more interesting lessons than most of their _official_ teachers, whether he was teaching Defence or what amounted to history-, but he was still primarily guessing what was going on here.

"Which leads us to where?" Landry asked.

"Uh... didn't we just guess that he's establishing a new Stargate network-?" George asked.

"That's a means, Mr Weasley; what we need to know right now is the _end_ that Ba'al's aiming for," Landry clarified, glaring briefly at Fred before turning his attention back to the Goa'uld. "Care to answer that for us, Nerus?"

"I have a theory, General," Nerus said, still smiling as he looked at the other man, "but no assortment of cheeses, however delicious, could possibly compel me to tell you that."

"What did you have in mind?" Landry asked.

"My freedom," Nerus replied casually, in a simple, direct manner that made it clear that the topic he'd just raised would be the end of the conversation as far as he was concerned.

Exchanging glances with the two wizards for a moment, Landry nodded slightly at them and stood up.

"If you could just... give us a moment," he said, indicating the cell door behind them as Fred and George stood up with him. "My people and I need to... discuss this."

"Of course," Nerus said, still smiling after them in satisfaction. "I anticipate your answer, but keep in mind that, once Ba'al has implemented the program, it will be impossible to detect without my knowledge."

"We'll keep that in mind," George said, smiling slightly sarcastically at Nerus before he indicated the remaining dishes. "In the meantime, you just keep on chewing; we'd hate to cut out some of the other courses we've got coming for you."

Glancing over at Landry, George raised his eyebrow in a slightly inquiring manner, and was relieved when the general nodded briefly in response.

Nerus might have been talking of his own free will so far, but if he wouldn't share anything else on his own, what they'd heard so far had been enough to confirm that they would need to rely on veritaserum if they couldn't come with a better plan.

George just hoped that the Goa'uld wouldn't have too much of an impact on the potion's effectiveness; he knew that some potions wouldn't work if they were used on non-human creatures- he still remembered what Harry, Ron and Hermione had told him about the accident with Hermione and the cat hair while making Polyjuice potion, even if some things were only funny in hindsight-, but would that apply to something that was practically 'merged' with a human being...?

He'd definitely need to make a quick floo call before they tried that; he just hoped that Hermione or one of their other contacts- he recalled that Ernie had shown a bit of a knack for Potions after fifth year, or Penelope could be another candidate given her skills in that area and the more personal connection- could confirm what they needed in time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to confirm, George was thinking of contacting Ernie MacMillan and Penelope Clearwater; from what we know of them, they seem like they'd be good candidates for other Potions experts that could be consulted for somewhat unusual skills if the need arose (Although they obviously won't be informed about exactly WHAT the 'other' factor is).


	43. Battle for the Stargates

As he stood on the bridge with the other members of his team, Mitchell could only cross his fingers and hope that _Odyssey_ had reached this planet in time; after all the effort that SG-1 had gone to in order to rescue these guys originally, it would suck beyond words if they turned out to be dead now.

In many ways, while the original SG-1 had defied direct orders and risked Earth being essentially conquered while they were away during their rescue, the mission with SG-10's rescue was one reason why he'd always wanted to work with the rest of the current team when he'd started at the SGC; anyone who'd go to those kind of lengths to save another team even after five years had the kind of courage and dedication that he _really_ wished he could see more of.

The thought that the lengths they'd gone to in order to save SG-10 should just be cut short like this...

He almost didn't hear the sound of the _Odyssey_ crew confirming that they'd discovered SG-10's subcutaneous transmitters, even if he definitely noticed when the team had materialised in the middle of the ship's bridge, dressed in various leather outfits and looking at their surroundings in shock.

"SG-10," Emerson said, smiling at the new arrivals, "I'm Colonel Paul Emerson, and I believe you already know SG-1. Welcome to the _Odyssey_."

"Thank you, sir," Major Boyd said, nodding in relief at the colonel before he looked over at SG-1 with a smile. "Always there to save us, aren't you?"

"It is what we do," Teal'c said, smiling briefly at the other man.

"Talking of what we do, any chance we could get out of these things and into something a bit less restrictive?" Captain Jessica McLeod asked, looking awkwardly at the officers around her as she indicated her current leather attire. "This might blend in down there, but it's really not that comfortable..."

"Go ahead," Emerson said with a slight smile. "Just get yourselves checked over in the infirmary and then join us at the briefing table; we'll go over our next move from there."

As SG-10 headed for the relevant part of the ship, Mitchell tried not to think too much about the possible complication of the information they'd acquired since leaving Earth.

He might trust Nerus about as far as he could throw the overfed lump, but that didn't mean the guy was always lying about stuff, and his story about Ba'al being responsible for the Stargate thefts certainly _sounded_ like something Ba'al would try and pull off.

He wasn't sure if he should hope that the rest of the information was accurate or that Nerus was still trying to trick them; the address Nerus had apparently provided under the influence of that truth potion could be useful, and it sounded like Fred and George trusted that 'Ernie' guy who they'd spoken with to give them an honest opinion on if it could work on something like a Goa'uld- he noted the emphasis they'd placed on the fact that they hadn't told Ernie _what_ they were researching with some slight amusement; they might be trying a bit too hard to show that they were conforming to the SGC's rules, but they were still in the early stages of their association with the organisation so it was only natural that they'd focus on making a good impression-, but could it really be that simple?

* * *

  
"So you're saying that Nerus doesn't even _remember_ that we fed him?" Captain Watts asked, looking at Mitchell with a broad smile as he listened to the latest news from Earth, SG-10 now comfortably dressed in BDUs as they attended the briefing with SG-1 and Colonel Emerson to discuss the information they had recently received from the last broadcast from the SGC.

"Not so much as a cupcake, which he apparently enjoyed before he forgot about them," Mitchell said, smiling slightly at the reaction when they'd read that particular news in the latest report from Earth; magic might still be the SGC's more relatively secret weapon, but that didn't mean that they couldn't enjoy its advantages when they were taking advantage of a few private moments. "All he's left with is the bizarre feeling of being well-fed without any of the benefits of remembering what he ate to get to that point; he's wondering if this is some new torture to keep him alive without actually letting him enjoy himself."

"And... that... potion... worked?" Doctor Lance Orman asked, looking over at Daniel with a slight uncertainty; even if SG-10's scientist had been present when SG-1 were summarising the benefits of their new allies' involvement in Nerus's interrogation, that didn't mean he couldn't have some doubts about the stories they were hearing about what had taken place.

"From what Fred and George could determine, he was telling them the truth; they... did a little mental probing to confirm whether any part of him was trying to trick him, and couldn't find anything like that," Daniel elaborated. "He might have been processing the potion faster than a normal human would- it didn't last on him as long as it would have lasted on another subject-, but he was definitely affected by it; they're as certain as they can be that he gave them the right address."

"Good to know," Emerson said, looking resolutely around the table at the two SG teams. "We're approaching the coordinates provided, and so far we haven't detected anything to suggest that they're a trap- there's definitely a ha'tak there, and not much else-, but our limited sensor capability while in hyperspace has to be taken into account; we're going to have to come out a short distance away from the location and hope for the best."

"And what are we going to do when we get there?" McLeod asked uncertainly. "I mean, if Ba'al has ships, that means shields, and the last time I checked we don't have any kind of cloaking device or something like that here to stop him just raising those and holding us off with superior numbers..."

"Oh, no worries on that front; I'm going to take care of getting us on board," Daniel said, smiling over at his teammates and colleagues.

"You, Doctor Jackson?" Major Boyd asked, looking at the archaeologist curiously. "How?"

"I've been... brushing up on a couple of the more difficult magical talents in my spare time," Daniel replied, looking slightly awkwardly at the rest of his team as he continued his explanation. "It can only be one at a time- I'm nowhere near comfortable enough with this particular trick to try taking more than that at once, given how long it's been-, but if we can get in close enough to Ba'al's ship, I should be able to apparate us into the hold before he knows we're there-"

"It just needs to be me, actually," Sam said, smiling slightly at Daniel before she turned to address the rest of the people sitting around the table, reaching into her pocket to pull out a small crystal. "I wrote a computer virus that should shut down Ba'al's ship's systems; all we have to do is get to a terminal and insert this crystal into it, and everything should power down long enough for us to recover the Stargates."

"That simple?" Mitchell asked.

"Well, we'll need to plant locator beacons on the Stargates to get them all out in the time frame facing us, and Daniel and I will need to use that radioactive isotope the Tok'ra came up with to protect us from the ship's internal sensors, but essentially, yes," Sam confirmed, before she looked over at Colonel Emerson. "Just to check, how far along is _Odyssey_ in terms of being battle-ready?"

"Well, our shields have only been tested in simulations, but weapons and navigation are all online," Emerson confirmed. "So long as we don't have to push the shields too far too fast, everything should work properly, particularly with our... other advantages taken into account."

"Let's take him down," Mitchell said, nodding firmly at the commander.

As Emerson left the room to give the order to the rest of the crew, Daniel allowed himself a slight chuckle at the thought that had just occurred to him.

"What?" Sam asked, looking curiously over at the wizard-turned-archaeologist.

"Nothing," Daniel said, smiling back at his oldest friend on SG-1. "I was just thinking... who'd have thought that we'd actually reach a point where we're uploading a virus to the mothership?"

"Well, in all fairness, we _have_ learned a lot more about Goa'uld technology since those days," Sam said, shaking her head slightly at the memory of the first time Daniel had made that reference; now that the situation that inspired that comment had been resolved, it was rather funny in hindsight. "It's not like we didn't go through a lot of trial and effort to work out how to do this correctly..."

"Actually, I always figured that the whole plot twist with the virus made sense," Mitchell put in, shrugging slightly as Sam and Daniel looked at him. "I mean, they'd had that ship for years, so who's to say they hadn't reverse-engineered some of the physical tech to make our computers, even if they couldn't check the programming until the rest of the fleet showed up to turn the power back on?"

"Uh... what are you talking about?" Watts asked, looking around at SG-1 in confusion.

" _Independence Day_ ," Teal'c commented.

"Oh," Watts said, nodding in understanding (Daniel was glad that the other wizards weren't here right now; he wasn't sure he had the time to explain the details of that movie to his old friends or its relevance to the current situation).

"All right," Emerson said, walking back into the room and looking around at the two teams. "We're on our way to the source of the signal; practicality issues of computer viruses aside, you're sure that you can do this, Doctor Jackson?"

"Just get us within visual range- of course, make it a very _distant_ visual range-, and I'll take it from there," Daniel said, nodding at Emerson in resolution. "Trust me; we can do this."

* * *

  
A few hours later, SG-1 and SG-10 stood on the _Odyssey_ 's bridge, looking grimly at the view on the window in front of them, the indistinct forms of Ba'al's fleet just visible at the limit of their sensors.

"You're sure they can't see us?" Mitchell asked, looking back at Sam.

"Fairly sure, anyway; we've modulated the shield to absorb all emissions by Goa'uld sensors," Sam explained, picking up the bag that held the subspace locator beacons they intended to use for the next stage of the mission; she and Daniel have been injected with the necessary isotopes earlier, which left them with nothing to do but go into the ship and get out before their time ran out. "It's not a true cloak, and they'll notice if we get much closer, but at this range and with Ba'al not looking for us, it should be enough for the moment."

"Right," Daniel said, swallowing slightly as he looked over at Sam. "If we're ready, shall we?"

He might be fairly sure that he could accomplish the task that he'd assigned to himself, but that didn't mean he wasn't allowed to feel apprehensive about the possibility of something going wrong; he wasn't exactly attempting something that every wizard had tried, after all.

Bellatrix Lestrange might have just managed to survive her apparition into space, but given that her magic had been enhanced by Hestia's naquadah and she _still_ ended up injured, that thought didn't do much to inspire faith in what he was planning...

Then again, Hestia had been pushing her body to its limits in every conceivable manner by trying to exert such a great amount of magical energy against her target while simultaneously maintaining the charms necessary to keep her alive in that kind of environment; he wasn't intending to travel as far as she had, and, if all went well, he'd be arriving in a far more hospitable environment.

Taking Sam's hand, Daniel took a deep breath, focused on his destination, tried not to think too much about the disturbing feeling of being sucked down a straw that he'd never grown used to...

* * *

  
They finally emerged in what appeared to be the main cargo hold of the ship, the distinctive walls making it clear that they were inside a Goa'uld ship, the room itself filled with various Stargates, either leaning against the walls or held up by supports, each one positioned alongside what had to be its accompanying DHD.

"Come on," Sam said, glancing anxiously at her surroundings as she checked the contents of her bag once again, evidently confirming that she had enough beacons. "The sooner we can get out of here, the better."

Daniel didn't argue; the Goa'uld might not have bothered with internal security cameras or the like- they probably figured that the odds of a situation coming up that would require such a system to exist was so slim that it would be a waste of time and effort to install them, particularly when the sensors were normally completely adequate for that purpose-, but that didn't mean that he wanted to spend more time here than was necessary. Quickly moving through the hold, the two of them planted the beacons on the Stargates and DHDs, Daniel using the occasional spell to Banish the beacons onto the more distant Stargates, until the work was quickly completed, leaving them to hurry over to the door of the cargo hold.

" _Alohamora_!" Daniel said, aiming his wand at the door- Sam could probably hack it, but there was no harm in checking to see if they could do things more quickly-, sighing in relief when the door opened easily; he hadn't been sure if the spell would work on a purely technological lock when it had probably been 'designed' to work on more conventional doors, but if anything, with the naquadah in the Stargates around him 'charging' the atmosphere with additional magic, it had actually been easier to use that spell than it was normally.

"Come on," Sam said, the two of them hurrying down the corridor for a short distance- they might not be setting off any alarms just yet, but that was no reason to stay still- until Sam came to a halt in front of another door, Daniel opening it with another quick charm after a brief nod of confirmation from Sam. Upon entering the room, Sam quickly headed towards the control panel in one corner, pulling out the data crystal she'd prepared earlier and inserting it into the computer, smiling casually over at Daniel as the lights around them began to flicker.

"It's active already?" he asked, looking over at Sam in surprise.

"That's the problem with the Goa'uld arrogance; they never saw the need to install firewalls," Sam said, smiling back at him before her expression became more serious. "Anyway, now that our job's done here, maybe we should just get out of here?"

"Right," Daniel said, taking Sam's hand once again and focusing on their destination once again...

* * *

  
"Well," Mitchell said, smiling slightly as Daniel and Sam reappeared in front of them, "I don't know how you used to be at that kinda thing, but you seem to be pretty comfortable with it now."

"Like all magic, focus is everything," Daniel said, shrugging briefly as he looked back at Mitchell.

"So," Sam said, turning back to Emerson, "how are we coming along with the Stargate recovery?"

"We've got most of them already; just another minute..." Emerson said, before an alarm suddenly sounded.

"Colonel," the lieutenant at the controls said, looking urgently back at SG-1, " three more motherships just dropped out of hyperspace."

"What?" Emerson said, looking sharply at the other man.

"Intercepting a hail, sir," the lieutenant said, activating the speakers as he did so.

" _Ha'tak vessel_ ," a voice said over the speakers. " _This is Netan of the Lucian Alliance. Surrender now, or you will be destroyed_."

Exchanging glances, Daniel was pleased to see the same smile appearing on the faces of all of his friends; evidently, they were thinking the same thing that he was.

"Well," Mitchell said, shrugging dismissively as he looked around the bridge, "if the Lucian Alliance want Ba'al, who are we to stand in their way?"

"Sir, they've powered up weapons," the lieutenant added. "Target appears to be Ba'al's ship."

"We've got what we came for, Lieutenant," Emerson said, smiling slightly at the younger man. "Get us out of here."

"Yes, sir," the lieutenant said, smiling in approval at the order as he turned _Odyseey_ around and activated the ship's hyperdrive, leaving Ba'al's ship at the mercy of the Lucian Alliance's own ships.

"Any particular destination in mind, Colonel Carter?" Emerson asked, looking at her with a slight smile.

"Let's just start where we picked up SG-10 and work on it from there," Sam replied. "I'll just head down to the cargo hold and see if there's anything in the DHDs that'll help us determine what planets they came from originally."

"Who'd have thought it?" Mitchell said, smiling over at Daniel. "We saved the day in record time _and_ got to avoid getting caught in the middle of a fight in the process; not a bad day's work, huh?"

"Not at all..." Daniel said, smiling slightly back at his friend.

Even if a part of him slightly resented the fact that he was suddenly being called upon to use skills and training that he'd been trying to leave behind for years, the rest of him couldn't get past how liberating it was to be free to use that training to help out once again; it might have been decades since he'd used that side of his past, but some things you really did never forget.

In the end, however, he had to agree with Mitchell's assessment; they did indeed have the best jobs in the world; another Ba'al clone down, a Goa'uld plot averted, stolen Stargates on their way back to their worlds of origin, and they didn't even have to deal with a complicated battle afterwards.

Looking out at the vastness of hyperspace before him, he just wished that he knew where Voldemort was in this mess; based on past experience, when Voldemort was this quiet, something bad _was_ going to happen (Even if he acknowledged that the scale of territory where Voldemort could be hiding had significantly expanded since the old days)...


	44. An Outing with the IOA

Since magic had come back into his life, Daniel was never sure if he should be grateful or concerned about the changes that it had brought into his life. The discovery that Voldemort was still alive was a shock even before he knew that his old enemy was now a Goa'uld, but at the same time it was a relief to be able to use his full skills once again- just because he'd avoided using them out of fear and lack of practise didn't mean that it wasn't a relief to be able to do everything he was capable of once again-, and he definitely enjoyed the chance to work with his old friends once again...

In the end, however, the thing that really sucked about this situation was the fact that, even after they'd convinced the IOA of the threat posed by Voldemort's continued existence, they hadn't been able to get a significant amount of resources diverted to the task of searching for the missing Death Eaters. Questioning Bellatrix after Hestia's extraction had failed to provide them with any kind of new information; not only did Bellatrix retain her insane loyalty to her 'master', but even when they'd attempted to interrogate her via Legilimency or even technological methods, her fractured mind had made it virtually impossible to get anything useful out of her. Whether it was the sheer scale of what she'd experienced as Hestia's host shattering her already-unstable mind due to the scale of Hestia's own delusions and insanity, or simply her original insanity being pushed even further, nobody knew, but any attempts to get information out of Bellatrix had so far been pointless.

Their inability to keep the existence of magic secret from the IOA had been one of the more frustrating parts of this; even if Jack had helped them deal with the questions about why Daniel hadn't been using his abilities to help out earlier, they were starting to express a greater interest in seeing about recruiting more wizards for Stargate teams, regardless of the risks involved in letting more of their offworld enemies learn about magic; Daniel had mainly managed to keep the truth about his abilities secret so far because he'd spent so much time learning about how the Goa'uld operated, but you couldn't put someone completely unused to their current enemies in this kind of situation and expect them to be perfect on their first time. When taking into account that even the SGC knew comparatively little about the Priors even after almost a year of trying to study them, it was increasingly clear that they had to try new methods of defending against them aside from their 'anti-Prior' device, particularly since that only stopped the Prior from using their powers for a time while still leaving them with the challenge of taking the Prior out, particularly when they had to try and question them.

Even if the part of Daniel that would always be Harry wanted to focus on Voldemort and the Death Eaters, the rest of him knew that he couldn't forget the threat posed by the Ori as well; they might be less of an immediate threat at the moment, but their distance just meant that it would take them longer to be a threat, while their advanced technology meant that it was inevitable that they'd find a way to come to this galaxy in force.

As much as he wanted to convince the SGC and the IOA to focus on the threat from his personal past, they had to focus on the threats posed to them in the present as well... which meant, annoyingly enough, that they had to go along with this new order.

"They want you to _babysit_ a bunch of political observers?" Fred said, looking incredulously at the group of people sitting around Daniel's office; given the relative size of the room, it had been SG-1 and SG-M's unofficial meeting-place when they wanted to talk on their own without the hassle of 'booking' the main briefing room. "That's like asking the Order to keep an eye on Umbridge!"

"Except that Umbridge was genuinely incompetent with nothing on her mind but her own agenda where at least some of the IOA are willing to listen to us even if they don't always agree with our immediate policies," Sam said, looking over at the joke-shop owner. "I don't like having to do this any more than you'd have liked looking after Umbridge, Fred- from what Daniel told us she sounds foul by any definition-, but this isn't the time to worry about things like that; we've got to keep them satisfied if we're going to stay in operation."

"Why is that actually an issue, anyway?" Tonks asked, looking over at Sam. "I mean, I get that you need a lot of power to keep that Stargate running in the first place, but what about everything else?"

"Hey, as much as we'd like to say we do all the alien-fighting for noble purposes, we do still need to have some way of earning a living and paying the bills once all's said and done," Mitchell said, shrugging slightly apologetically as he looked over at the Metamorphagus. "Add in the budget needed to keep constructing the F-304 spaceships, the resources we need to study some of the things we find out there, setting up long-term outposts on some particularly significant planets..."

"The cost piles up, huh?" George said with a smile.

"To say the least," Sam confirmed. "It wasn't that significant a concern when we defeated the Goa'uld and weren't at war any more, but when we accidentally revealed our existence to the Ori, the politicians were reluctant to allow us to retain our pre-existing budget, given that their distance from this galaxy meant that the Ori didn't seem to be a priority threat. Faced with some politicians arguing that our budget should be lowered, General Landry was only able to arrange a compromise relationship where the International Oversight Advisory was established to provide civilian oversight into our actions and ensure that we could justify every expenditure in our budget; the alternative would have been to lower our budget until we could actively prove we needed what we had been allocated earlier, and I think we can all agree that wouldn't have worked."

"So, in other words, if you don't play nice with these people they could potentially shut you down and claim it's because you're not doing your job properly?" Hermione asked, rolling her eyes as Daniel nodded in confirmation of her assessment. "God, it's Umbridge and Fudge all over again..."

"Except that the IOA are just blinkered rather than blind; they acknowledge that the threat is out there, but they're just sometimes more concerned with dealing with it their way rather than letting us deal with it _our_ way," Daniel said, looking at her with a reassuring smile. "It's still annoying, I know, but we've grown somewhat used to dealing with them; at least while we're away, you're still here to help out if you get any further news of Voldemort."

"Yeah, come to that, am I the only one worried that the guy's been so quiet?" Fred asked, looking uncertainly over at Daniel. "I mean, we haven't heard a thing from him in weeks..."

"In all fairness, it's a big galaxy and we still haven't explored all of it; it's possible that Voldemort's been attacking worlds that we just haven't found yet," Daniel said, shrugging in a resignation that only those who knew him best would have recognised as his effort to restrain frustration. "Still... maybe we should start considering trying to take a look at his mind again..."

"Hold that until the next mission's over, OK, Jackson?" Mitchell said, looking firmly at his friend. "I get the frustration, but this isn't the time for you to try and hack the bad guy's mind; we've got to deal with what we've been officially assigned to do before we can try to find the 'Dork Lord' again."

"'Dork Lord'?" Hermione repeated, looking at Mitchell with a smile.

"Hey, I've dealt with an alien snake who poses as a god in the past; I'm not going to call some jumped-up wizard with a snake fetish who basically possessed another snake to escape his death a _Dark_ Lord of anything," Mitchell said, looking over at Hermione with a smile of his own. "Besides, we've got to focus on the positives; we found a cure to the Prior's plague and dealt with it well enough."

"And it has been some time since the last reported outbreak," Teal'c added.

"But that doesn't mean that we can afford to get carried away," Hermione said, staring around at the others. "After all, Voldemort stayed underground for a year after his first resurrection and that didn't make him any less dangerous; when you take the scale of the territory that the Ori are trying to conquer into account, along with their immortality meaning that they've got time to plan for the long-term, that doesn't exactly mean that they've given up."

"Indeed," Teal'c said, nodding in acknowledgement at the Minister of Magic.

"Well, we know what we've got to do right now, so let's focus on that before we tackle the main issue of the wizard-possessed Goa'uld," Mitchell said, standing up to clap his hands together as he looked at his teammates with a smile. "SG-M can hit the books, while SG-1 handle the babysitting duties; maybe you guys can even take our ruin visit that we got pulled from while we're at it."

"Unlikely," Hermione said, smiling in a teasing manner at her new friend. "In case you're forgetting, you... 'called dibs', I believe the term is, on the only archaeologist either of us have?"

"Oh yeah..." Mitchell said, looking back at Daniel before shrugging at Hermione. "Well, that's life, I suppose."

"Well, just try and avoid losing your temper with anyone, and I'm sure you'll be fine," Lupin said, grinning over at Daniel.

"Trust me, self-control in the face of ignorant idiots isn't the problem these days," Daniel said, smiling in understanding at his father's friend. "The only question is whether they'll _listen_ to us if things go wrong..."

* * *

  
As he stood in front of the Stargate a couple of hours later, Daniel had to wonder how this whole meeting was going to go; he hadn't seen any of the IOA since he'd explained his history in the wizarding world to them so many weeks ago, but he wasn't going to even try and kid himself into thinking that they would be willing to let him completely off for keeping that story quiet for so long.

Still, for the moment, the rest of the IOA representatives seemed to be more concerned with their first actual sight of the Stargate- why was it that the people responsible for controlling Earth's use of this device had so little real interest in the Stargate itself- than asking him about the secrets of his family past; he'd tackle that issue when the time came.

"It's... uh... it's much bigger than I expected," Chapman, the British representative, said, looking uncomfortably at the Stargate.

"We get that a lot," Landry said with a smile.

"Mr Chapman, Mr LaPierre, Miss Shen," Woolsey said, indicating the team standing alongside the Stargate, "I'd like you to meet our escort to the Gamma site, SG-1; Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell, Lieutenant Colonel Sam Carter, Teal'c-"

"And Doctor Daniel Jackson, AKA... Harry Potter, I believe it was before you changed your name," the woman Woolsey had introduced as Shen said, stepping forward to smile at him. "Ph.D. in Archaeology, Anthropology, and Philology. The man who solved the riddle of the Stargate."

"Shen Xiaoyi," Daniel replied, nodding politely back at her, making a note to ask about her sudden interest in his new academic history even if he was grateful that she wasn't mentioning his wizarding heritage; he might have had to reveal his past, but he wanted to be respected for what he'd legitimately learned rather than for anything he'd done primarily because circumstances had forced it upon him (He might have wanted to destroy Voldemort whatever else he'd discovered, but the lack of personal choice in how their conflict had begun still annoyed him after all these years). "Graduate of Beijing Foreign Studies University and the London School of Economics and Political Science. Former attaché to the Chinese mission in the United States."

" _Your Mandarin is very good_ ," Shen said suddenly in Chinese.

" _Not as good as your English_ ," Daniel replied, feeling increasingly if subtly uncomfortable at this turn of events; Shen seemed to be polite so far, but there was definitely something

" _As it should be_ ," Shen said, before she indicated Mitchell with a slight smile. " _What do you think about him_?"

" _We're still observing him_ ," Daniel said out of a lack of anything else he could politely say, prompting an amused laugh from Shen.

"Yeah, that's funny," Mitchell said, before speaking his next sentence in Mandarin as he glared at Daniel. " _Get lost_."

"Uh... sorry," Daniel said, looking apologetically at Mitchell (He was almost grateful that Voldemort's resurrection had numbed most of the surprise he might feel; after a shock like that, learning that Mitchell could speak another language was a relatively minor surprise) as Harriman informed them that the final chevron had been locked and the Stargate burst into life. Daniel noted with some satisfaction that all of the IOA representatives appeared to be at least impressed at the sight of the wormhole that had now formed

"The Gamma Site is twenty-four thousand light-years from here," Sam said, stepping up onto the ramp to address the various IOA delegates. "But once we step through the event horizon, it will take us less than one second to get there."

"After you," Mitchell said, nodding briefly at Shen, the Chinese delegate walking up the ramp as the British and French delegates did the same, followed by Mitchell and Teal'c before Daniel walked through the gate himself.

In a strange way, he was actually looking forward to this; after so long worrying about Voldemort or the Priors, it would be a relief to deal with an enemy that he'd been tackling since he was fifteen, particularly since these politicians were mainly just out to do their job and only _might_ be out to inconvenience him rather than definitively wanting him under their control...


	45. Diplomatic Relations

As far as offworld facilities went, the Gamma site base might not be the most elaborate, but it was still relatively comfortable. With the Gamma site having been built around the Stargate of an uninhabited planet whose address had been found on the Ancient database, the base itself was a relatively basic construction, consisting of an F-302 hanger and various F-302s attached to a small tower and a couple of low, grey laboratory facilities, located in a decently-sized forest with a good view of the immediate surrounding area, as well as some mountains a short distance away to provide a natural cover. The base's interior was also comparatively straightforward in design, possessing the typical grey corridors and occasional signs that Daniel had come to expect in any military base.

As the tour began, Sam took the IOA representatives on a quick walk around the base, explaining some details about the reasons for establishing the Gamma site on this planet while giving the delegates the chance to look at some of the work that was being done in the base; from what Daniel recalled from the last report he'd read about the site, one of the major projects right now was studying some kind of insect that had been found on planets that had been recently visited by the Priors, which preferred moving in darkness, stayed alive for longer if they didn't eat, and apparently 'navigated' by echo-location (Daniel had to wonder what Hagrid would make of them, but he wasn't going to think too much about that; if nothing else, after Hagrid's creation of the Blast-Ended Skrewts, as much as he valued the half-giant's friendship, the last thing he wanted was to give Hagrid more potential creatures to breed)...

As much as Daniel appreciated the chance at a relatively relaxing mission, he had to agree with Mitchell's assessment; this was nothing but a PR stunt to improve Stargate Command's image in the eyes of the IOA, and Shen's low opinion of the SGC from the beginning was going to do little to improve anyone's mood at a time like this.

The diplomat he'd found himself becoming after he joined the SGC might understand where she was coming from with her objections to the lack of technology they'd shared with the Chinese, but the rest of him just resented Shen's narrow-mindedness; like the Ministry of Magic that had caused him such trouble as a child, she was unconcerned about anything that didn't involve immediate practical benefit to her.

With that thought in mind, when he noticed Shen sitting on a separate table from the rest of the delegates, with nothing else to immediately occupy his time, he decided to relocate over to Shen's table after putting his tray together; as the most potentially problematic of the IOA delegates currently on the tour, it made sense to try and establish what she was here to accomplish to ensure that she didn't do anything that might damage the SGC's reputation.

"Don't feel like joining us at the other table?" he asked, as he walked up to stand alongside her table.

"I'm just in the middle of-" Shen began.

"OK, don't mind if I do," Daniel interrupted, casually sitting down at the table; in his experience with the Ministry of Magic, the best way to make your point to politicians was to put them in a position where it was more awkward for them to get rid of you than it would be for them to just let you do or say whatever you were trying to do. It appeared that the philosophy applied to magical and non-magical politicians, as Shen merely smiled politely at him as he sat down before turning her attention back to her notebook.

"You were in the middle of something?" he asked, turning the question back on her.

"Taking notes on my visit here, while the details are still fresh on my mind," Shen clarified with a sigh before she looked at him with the pointed stare that Daniel recognised from experience as the stare of someone who knew they weren't getting the full picture and wanted more information. "This tour has provided me some wonderful insight into tedious off-world research and the lunch menu here on your Gamma Site."

"Well, believe it or not," Daniel began as he swallowed his latest mouthful of food, "the-"

"Is this where you tell me the SGC has no choice but to maintain its air of secrecy surrounding its operations?" Shen asked. "That as an outsider I could never understand or appreciate the work you all do, saving our planet time and again?"

"Well," Daniel replied, allowing some of his 'inner Harry' to get out as he glared at the Chinese diplomat, "considering that you have only ever read about our victories _after_ they've happened, you probably think it's a bit easier to pull it off than it actually is, but I would just like you to keep one thing in mind; we became this good because we have had eight years of training dealing with the worst that this galaxy and the next had to throw at us, and that's the kind of thing that you can't just pass on that quickly."

"Does this belief that you're better than us tie in to the reason why the Gate Alliance Treaty has left us out in the cold as your military technology continues to develop?" Shen asked; as with the most frustrating politicians of Daniel's experience, she was clearly ignoring the rest of his argument in favour of focusing on what parts of his statement 'proved' her point.

"I can't exactly speak for the US military's reasons for such a policy," Daniel said at last, after taking a moment to consider the most diplomatic response he could make to such a statement; stating that he thought that the SGC was 'better' only because they had more experience wouldn't exactly accomplish anything as they both knew what he had really meant by that particular statement. "They're in charge of the program, and that's the way it is."

"Perhaps it's time that changed," Shen said, a slight smile on her face that made it clear that she was testing how he'd react to such a suggestion.

"There's no way that the American military will ever give up control of the Stargate program," Daniel said, looking back at the Chinese woman before him with barely-concealed shock; the idea that she was even _contemplating_ something like that- whether to improve our country's reputation on the international scene or her own personal standing for pulling it off- was so short-sighted it was ridiculous.

"Maybe it won't have a choice-" Shen began.

"And you're an idiot if you think you can make it work," Daniel interjected; he'd lost all patience for that kind of crap over the years, and he wasn't going to put up with government manipulations trying to ruin his life any more.

"Excuse me?" Shen asked, staring at him in surprise, clearly unprepared for the archaeologist to speak back to her in such a manner.

"This isn't a question of China setting up its own Stargate program to continue the work that the American military has established, Miss Shen," Daniel said, staring firmly at her; he'd been content with a direct refusal of Scrimgeour's requests for him to act as the Ministry poster-boy in the war against Voldemort, but now that he was older he felt more comfortable making counter-arguments to 'offers' like the one Shen had probably been thinking of making. "The fact of the matter is that Stargate Command is the agency that several offworld civilisations have established treaties and connections with, ranging from those primitive cultures who let us set up bases on their worlds to more advanced races like the Asgard whose aid has been vital in keeping us safe from other species while we're developing our own technology; if China took control of the Stargate, you'd lose several officers and employees who helped to establish those treaties in the first place as they'd prefer to remain in America, which would almost certainly result in the loss of the connections between Earth and those worlds, and you'd lose valuable time and resources in our current campaigns against the Ori and the Wraith- _neither_ of whom are going to just withdraw and leave us alone until we're dead, worshipping them, or their latest food supply, so don't even try and argue in favour of leaving them alone- that we can't afford to lose if we're going to survive, so this whole discussion is completely worthless."

"We have a right-" Shen began.

"This isn't about entitlement, it's about practicality," Daniel said, glaring firmly back at Shen. "The Stargate program isn't just about getting out there and taking technology through theft from our enemies or as gifts from people we help; it's about forming alliances in the long term and working with the other races out there for the betterment of everyone. Maybe we have some problems, and maybe your country could receive more from the treaty than you do, but you need to remember that Stargate Command is the reason we're all still alive and free; you can't just expect to step in and take control and think that you'll receive everything we've spent the last decade assembling because you're the ones in charge now."

For a moment, Shen could only stare incredulously at Daniel's detailed rebuttal of everything she might have used to try and convince him to join a Chinese-run Stargate program, until she collected herself and looked solemnly at the archaeologist.

"You've changed, Doctor Jackson," she said, looking contemplatively at the former Boy-Who-Lived, her tone the frustratingly neutral tone that so few politicians had mastered in Daniel's life as Harry; he'd always known how they felt about him back then, but nowadays it was a lot harder to _know_ how they felt about him and his friends. "I always heard that you were in the SGC for exploration more than anything else."

"As you know from my revised personnel file, I've been dealing with war since I was a teenager; you can't afford to think about public appearance when you're dealing with the kind of adversaries I've encountered as a kid and at the SGC," Daniel replied, staring back at her; if he had to acknowledge his past as Harry, he was going to acknowledge the lessons he'd learned back then as well. "If the Chinese had started the Stargate program originally, I would probably have joined it, but the fact is that the Americans were the ones who started the program and have formed all the connections you'd need to actually get anywhere in the galaxy as it exists."

"And you think that we can't form those connections?" Shen asked critically.

"I think that you can't re-establish them in the time you'd need to hold your own in the current war against the Ori, and even if we didn't have that to worry about, in the end, it would be nothing more than your attempt to begin your country's own self-centred power trip," Daniel replied firmly; faced with the potential annihilation of the human race if the wrong decision was made, he wasn't going to try and sugar-coat his responses. "I'll see what I can do to convince General O'Neill to look at providing you with some more examples of our technology than what you've received so far, but in the end, your government getting control of the Stargate would just force Earth to start all over from scratch at a time when consistency is important; we've started, so you missed your shot and that's that."

Shen stared silently at Daniel for a few moments before she turned her attention back to her food, leaving Daniel to resume his own food in silent contemplation.

Maybe he'd been somewhat excessively harsh to Shen, but it was the best way for him to make sure that she understood what he had to tell her; taking control of the Stargate wouldn't give China automatic access to all the resources that America had acquired over the last decade, and Earth as a whole was in no position for its first line of defence against the current threat of the Ori to change hands.

* * *

  
An hour later, with their meals eaten, Sam and Daniel were sitting in the mess hall in relatively silent contemplation; with the delegates being shown around the Gamma site by the base commander for the last few hours before their return to Earth, and all duties on the base being already filled, there wasn't much for the four of them to do but wait for the delegates to be finished so that they could take them home. Mitchell was out taking a look at some of the other parts of the base, and Teal'c was taking the opportunity to give some of the military forces deployed to the gamma site a crash course in unarmed combat, leaving Sam and Daniel to take a break in the mess hall out of the lack of any experiments or research they could actually help anyone with in the rest of the base.

"So," Sam asked, looking curiously at Daniel as she sat down beside him, "what were you and Shen talking about earlier?"

"Basically, she wanted to know if I would join a Chinese-run Stargate program if they had established such a program before the American military did," Daniel replied; after everything else he'd been forced to reveal he was keeping from them, he was resolved not to lie to his teammates any more now.

"And from there establish if you'd be interested in joining a Chinese program if they got their hands on the Stargate, right?" Sam finished, looking at him with a slightly uncertain expression.

"Which I wasn't," Daniel replied firmly, enjoying the relieved smile on Sam's face at that news before he continued his explanation. "I mean, it wouldn't have made a difference whether I received the first job offer to translate the Stargate from either government- America or China; if they were willing to employ me and give me the chance to discover something new, I'd have worked for either of them, particularly given the state of my career at that point-, but any attempt the Chinese might make to set up a Stargate program now would just be them trying to get more power for themselves, completely ignoring the wider issues of the treaties and alliances they'd have to re-establish at a time when we just can't waste any if we're going to stop the Ori... and that's without the fact that I wouldn't want to work for an SGC that didn't include all of you there as well."

"To say nothing of Voldemort, right?" Sam said, looking curiously at her friend, trying not to think about the feelings evoked by Daniel's simple statement that he wouldn't work for an SGC that didn't employ the rest of them...

"Well, that too, but I didn't mention that; I didn't want her accusing me of focusing on my... more personal reasons for wanting to go through the Stargate right now," Daniel said, shrugging slightly before he looked more uncertainly at Sam. "Am I... being selfish?"

"For wanting to go after Voldemort?" Sam asked, shaking her head. "Daniel, he killed your parents, several of your friends, and was even responsible for the death of your fiancé; add in everything else that you told us about his actions during his last two attempts to claim power for himself, I think that wanting to stop him is as far from being selfish as it's possible to be."

Daniel wondered if he had imagined the slight hesitation in Sam's voice as she mentioned his fiancé, but pushed that aside; it was probably nothing more than natural uncertainty about whether Ginny should be considered a fiancé or a girlfriend given that she'd only been engaged to him for a few hours at most before she was killed.

"Still," he said, smiling slightly as he turned his attention back to the present, "at least this time around I don't have to worry about Voldemort coming after me when I'm at school or anything like that; with him out in another part of the galaxy right now, he doesn't exactly have many opportunities to attack me directly."

"He really made a regular habit of that?" Sam asked.

"Well, he lured me in to dangerous situations on two separate occasions and attempted to attack Hogwarts while I was there in my first couple of years; he wasn't remotely concerned about the fact that I was just a child at the time," Daniel replied, shaking his head grimly at the memory. "Even before I was fully qualified as a wizard or set foot through the Stargate, I found myself facing death more times than most soldiers or aurors twice my age..."

"Was that part of the reason why you wanted to join SG-1?" Sam asked. "The chance to get back into action?"

"Well, I told myself that it _was_ just about saving Sha're at first- part of the reason I went into archaeology was that it was unlikely to put me in a position where I'd have to fight for my life again-, but..." Daniel began, shrugging slightly as he looked at his friend. "As much as I didn't like having to fight for my life at Hogwarts- and I definitely didn't miss losing people-, I _did_ miss the fact that I'd been able to make a difference back then as well."

"It's hard to let go of that part of life, huh?" Sam said, her mind briefly flashing back to one of the movies that they'd watched during one of their old movie nights with Jack O'Neill back when they'd been filling Teal'c in on some of the finer details of Earth's popular culture...

Further conversation on this topic was cut off as Mitchell suddenly hurried into the dining area, a grim expression on his face as he glanced around the room before he spotted them and walked over to their table.

"Cam?" Sam said, looking apprehensively at her friend's expression. "What's wrong?"

"We've got trouble," Mitchell said. "Doctor Myers has just collapsed right in front of the IOA delegates, and he was present at an earlier incident where RL-75 breached containment."

"The bugs?" Daniel said, looking at SG-1's commanding officer in surprise. "How could they breach containment?"

"That's something Pearson wants to talk to me and Sam about before he takes any more action; he's prepping Myers to be sent back to Earth for closer analysis, but he'd like our input before he takes any definitive action," Mitchell said, looking apologetically between the two scientists. "Second-most-senior military officers present, you know how it is..."

"Of course," Daniel said, nodding in understanding at his friends. "I'll get Teal'c and keep an eye on the delegates?"

"Good call," Sam said, smiling reassuringly but apologetically at him as she got up and walked off with Mitchell.

It might just be a minor problem, but when dealing with the Ori, Daniel had learned long ago to assume that anything they'd created was going to be more than it initially appeared.

He just hoped that his current fears were just paranoia; how dangerous could a bunch of insects be...?


	46. Bugs in the Gamma Site

One thing Daniel could never understand about politicians in either of his identities was how they could be so narrow-minded. Fudge had spent almost a whole year trying to deny that Voldemort was back simply because he wasn't ready to face the implications of having to wage a new war, Scrimogeur had spent more time trying to give the impression that he was doing something about taking control of the war effort rather than actually trying to find Death Eaters, Kinsey had initially been convinced that America could handle the Goa'uld on their own and continued to dismiss the SGC as failures when their successes far outweighed a few errors, and now Shen was more concerned with her country's reputation than actually stopping to think about what would happen if her country managed to take control of the Stargate...

He knew that there were some good eggs in the basket, of course- Kingsley Shacklebolt had done a good job after he was elected to the position immediately following the war, and Hermione was certainly handling her responsibilities well even if she had been forced to sacrifice some of her personal life to do it (He wondered if it would have made any difference if Ron had survived the war)-, but in most cases they just seemed to be in the game for the power and prestige rather than any kind of desire to help people...

And right now, here he was, stuck in the middle of a crisis in an offworld research facility with a bunch of IOA representatives, each of whom were insisting that they return to Earth no matter how much he and Teal'c had explained that they were being kept here due to official policy rather than any kind of personal 'vendetta' in order to prevent quarantine.

What _was_ it about politics that almost everyone he'd met who worked in the field had developed selective hearing?

"This is outrageous," the French delegate- Daniel thought his name was Lapierre or something, but he was trying not to think about it too much; a part of him was too busy resisting the urge to make rabbit-related jokes about the name- as he and Teal'c led them towards the gateroom, Woolsey's earlier departure for that part of the facility

"Mr Woolsey assured me that we would be leaving on schedule."

Daniel was saved from having to think of a polite response to that statement when lights began to flicker and alarms began to blare in obvious signs of an imminent emergency, before Mitchell, Sam and Woolsey walked briskly around the corner up ahead of them.

"Back to the elevator," Mitchell said, amid the sounds of gunfire from behind them. "We're going upstairs."

Not bothering to ask what was happening, Daniel turned around and began to lead the IOA representatives in the indicated direction, followed by the rest of his teammates.

"What's going on?" Shen asked.

"We have a bit of a bug problem," Mitchell said grimly. "You don't want to be last."

"I'll explain everything," Woolsey said, looking anxiously at the other delegates.

"So long as you do it in the briefing room," Mitchell said. "I don't know what we're dealing with right now, but I _do_ know that this isn't the place to discuss it."

* * *

  
"While I was talking with Colonels Mitchell and Carter in the gateroom," Woolsey began to explain, starting his explanation almost as soon as the other delegates had sat down at the conference table in the room, "I learned that Doctor Myers- one of the research staff- was bitten by the RL-75 insect when it managed to breach containment through as-yet-undisclosed circumstances. Myers displayed a turn for the worst after the attack, and was to be taken back to Earth to be analysed in greater depth, but as he was being moved..."

"He suddenly started spewing bugs," Mitchell interjected from his position off to the side of the room, noting Woolsey's hesitation to actually voice what he was thinking about; the imagery it created wasn't exactly pleasant. "Well, we didn't see it ourselves, but the guys nearest him when it happened say that's what it was, and we don't exactly have a reason to think otherwise."

"As you can imagine," Woolsey said, looking around at the other delegates, "until we have determined the cause of this... incident... as well as a means of containing the bugs, our return to Earth must naturally be postponed until the situation is resolved.

With his statement made, Woolsey stepped away from the table, leaving the other delegates to discuss the latest news as he walked over to SG-1, standing off to the side of the room with Mitchell.

"I know that I saw it, but I still don't understand," the American IOA representative said, looking at Sam in obvious confusion. "What happened to him?

"Well, I can't say for sure, but my guess is that the bug must have laid its eggs in him," Sam replied, her voice low to limit the possibility of starting a panic. "They incubated, and when they hatched… well, we know they eat meat."

"I'm sorry I asked," Woolsey said, shaking his head grimly as he walked over to join the other delegates, leaving Sam to turn her attention to the rest of SG-1.

"Well, I think we're past the point of coincidence," Daniel said, looking grimly at his teammates. "There's no question these bugs are the Priors' follow-up to the virus."

"And it appears they were designed to circumvent any attempt to forestall their destructive nature," Teal'c added.

"Deny them crops, and their physiology adapts to a different food source," Sam noted.

"In other words, they start eating us instead," Daniel said.

"Colonel Pearson?" Mitchell asked, activating his radio, only to be met with no response even as alarms around them continued to blare. "Colonel, do you read?"

The ominous mood was far from helped when the lights in the meeting-room began to flicker, prompting concerned glances from the other delegates.

"It's all right," Woolsey said, trying to look in control as he addressed the other delegates. "I imagine it's just a little power fluctuation; nothing to worry about..."

Daniel wasn't sure if the nervous laugh Woolsey gave in response was enough to make the other delegates worry about the accuracy of that claim, but the sudden darkness that followed that statement would certainly do the job if the laugh didn't.

"Oh, dammit..." Woolsey muttered, just before the dimmer emergency lighting activated.

"That's enough of this," Mitchell said, walking over to open the door to the corridor outside, just as Pearson and two other soldiers arrived at the other side.

"Colonel," Mitchell said, as he took in the other man's identity thanks to the torchlight from the two soldiers behind him. "What's the situation?"

"Not good," Pearson said, his expression grim as he walked into the conference room. "There were thousands of those things in the pod. They killed one of my men before we retreated."

"You lost the gateroom?" Daniel said, looking at Pearson in shock.

"We need to take it back," Pearson said, ignoring Daniel's query out of a lack of any obvious response he could make to such a statement.

"Sounds like a plan," Mitchell said, before he looked over at Daniel. "I don't suppose-?"

"I don't have anything in my arsenal that could take out that many small-moving targets in time to dial the Stargate, and if these things were created by the Ori I can't guarantee that any barriers I could create would hold them back for long," Daniel said, looking apologetically at his friend. "Offensively, all we  
can guarantee are our guns."

"Well, we'll just have to work with what we've got," Pearson said, walking around the group to look at Woolsey. "Mister Woolsey, my man will escort you and your people to the surface. Get you to a safe location. Get you as far away from here as possible until this situation is contained."

"I don't think so," Woolsey said firmly.

"Excuse me?" Pearson responded, looking incredulously at the delegate.

"SG-1 will escort us out," Woolsey clarified. "They're here to ensure the safety of this delegation."

"You understand that no one gets off this planet until the gate is retaken?" Mitchell asked, looking at the American IOA representative in a manner that reminded Daniel of the way Krum had looked at Crouch.

"And I'm sure Colonel Pearson and his people will do everything in their power to make sure that happens," Woolsey replied. "In the meantime, _you_ will take us to the surface. You will protect us, as per your orders from the Pentagon."

"All right," Pearson said, his tone resigned to Woolsey's demands despite his obvious annoyance as he looked at Mitchell. "Get them out of here."

As the delegates picked up their various briefcases and paperwork and prepared to leave, Daniel wondered how long it would take for this whole situation to backfire on them...

* * *

  
As they walked towards the forests on the mountains surrounding the Gamma Base, Daniel had to admit that he was actually enjoying this part of the job.

It would probably come back to bite them later- his expectations and opinions of the IOA weren't exactly high-, but at least, for the moment, these delegates were getting a taste of what the SG teams went through on a regular basis, rather than being in a position where they could just sit safely behind their desks and criticise the people actually risking their lives for not taking the most 'politically expedient' course of action.

That wasn't to say that Daniel didn't just wish that he could get them all to safety and get away from this whole situation as soon as possible, of course. If there'd been less of them to worry about, he might have tried to set up a portkey- he had been to the auxiliary Gamma research facility once or twice and knew where it approximately was, which should be enough for the relevant purpose-, but with so many people he had his doubts about being able to enchant a large enough object to provide everyone with something to hold on to (To say nothing of the fact that his experience with creating portkeys was limited).

As it was, regardless of his slightly-conflicting desire to make the IOA see what they had to deal with and wanting to make sure that they survived long enough to give the SGC a hopefully positive review, walking was the delegates' only option if they wanted to get to safety, and they were just going to have to accept that and keep up the pace while hoping that what they were doing would be enough to save their lives.

"Excuse me," Woolsey said, walking past the other delegates to talk to Sam from her position near the front of the temporary procession. "Surely we could have taken a Jeep?"

"We're headed to an unmanned research station," one of the Gamma Base soldiers assigned to accompany them said, handing Sam a map to indicate their position. "It's located approximately ten klicks from here through dense forest."

"Then I have to ask if this is really necessary," Woolsey asked. "I mean, couldn't we just wait here until Colonel Pearson gives us the 'all clear'?"

"Our orders are to take you to the research station," Mitchell said, his tone brokering no argument as he looked at Woolsey from his position slightly behind the other man. "That's where we're going."

As the group continued walking, Daniel fell into position beside Teal'c, just behind the other delegates- he didn't want to have to talk with Shen any more than he had already, particularly given that he was still angry at her suggestion that China might try and take control of the program for themselves-, but his suspicions were roused when Teal'c stopped walking and paused for a moment, apparently listening for something.

"Teal'c?" Daniel asked, looking anxiously at his friend before he heard what must have attracted Teal'c's attention originally; a strange, high-pitched buzzing, accompanied by lower sounds that sounded vaguely like flapping wings.

"What is that?" another Gamma soldier asked, as the other soldiers and the delegates up ahead turned around to look at Daniel and Teal'c.

"It's the bugs," Sam said, raising her weapon in preparation for a possible attack.

"What's happening?" another soldier said from behind Daniel and Teal'c, looking down at his feet as the others turned to look at him. The ground seemed to tremor for a moment before the bugs suddenly burst from the ground, devouring the unfortunate soldier before anyone could do more than point their weapons at the bugs as they began to disperse, leaving no sign that their victim had ever been there.

"We have to move!" Mitchell yelled, looking back at the delegates. "Now!"

Not needing further instructions, the ground began to run onwards towards their destination, Teal'c taking up the rear to better keep an eye on the bugs. After they'd been running for a while, they came to a clearing at the end of a path that ran alongside a ridge, prompting Sam and Mitchell to halt their rapid progress and turn to look at the others, Mitchell issuing a command to halt that the rest of the group quickly obeyed.

"I think it's safe to assume that the bugs got off the base," Chapman said, the British delegate panting for breath as he looked at the other members of the group.

"They must be using their echo-location to hunt their prey," Sam said.

"In other words, us," Daniel said, looking pointedly at the IOA delegates to ensure that they understood the implications of that last statement.

"Where can we go?" Lapierre asked, looking anxiously at the rest of the group. "They move underground!"

"We need rocky terrain," Mitchell said, his voice low as he leaned over to confer with Sam. "Somewhere difficult for them to move..."

"We can try the caves," another airman said, standing at Mitchell's other side as he spoke to Sam. "This way."

Following his cue, the rest of the group followed the airman along another path until they reached the caves in question, a basic tunnel in the stone wall surrounded by trees and other foliage. As she approached the tunnel, Sam took up a position just inside of the cave entrance, allowing the delegates to run past her as she looked at the young airman.

"Get them inside," she said, looking firmly at the junior soldier, the three men of SG-1 gathering around their teammate while the other military men moved the delegates to safety.

"They're coming," Mitchell said after a moment's pause as the team took up their positions, the sound of the bugs approaching now virtually scarred into their brains after what they had witnessed during the earlier attack.

"They're highly sensitive to sound," Sam said, looking over at her teammates. "The concussive force of our weapons should be enough to drive them back."

"And I've got a few sound-related spells I can do in the process," Daniel added, pulling out his wand and aiming it briefly at the barrels of his teammates' weapons, briefly aiming his wand at their ears before focusing the seemingly simple stick on the ground himself. "It's not much, but I just enhanced the sound that your bullets will make when fired and did a quick muffling spell to shield your eardrums from the worst of the backlash; it might help us drive the bugs back more quickly."

"If it saves ammo, I'm all for that," Mitchell said, checking his weapon as he took up position. "Where do we shoot?"

"Just fire at the ground," Sam replied, the team raising their weapons to fire at the ground in front of the cave. The rapid series of bullets from the guns, further enhanced by Daniel's quick enchantment to the weapons moments prior, quickly proved sufficient to drive the bugs back, leaving them facing a forest that was once again silent apart from the expected sounds of nature.

"Very nice," Mitchell said, Sam nodding in agreement at his assessment.

"All right, folks, listen up," SG-1's leader said, turning around and walking slightly further into the cave to address the delegates. "We're surrounded by rock here, so there's no way the bugs are digging in. We've got the entrance covered. Everything's going to be fine."

"Until we run out of bullets," Daniel said, his voice low as he looked at Mitchell when his friend walked back to the cave entrance, wanting to ensure that the other man acknowledged the fact that they weren't out of the woods yet.

"Couldn't you just-?" Mitchell asked.

"Like I said earlier, I don't have any spells for taking out that number of bugs even if I could be sure that the Ori haven't added anything else to them, and even if I did we've no guarantees that I wouldn't just get tired and run out of energy before those things... well, overwhelmed me," Daniel replied grimly. "I'll do what I can, but we need to face facts; we're not getting off this planet unless we can retake the Gamma base or contact a ship."

Daniel didn't need to see the grim expression on Mitchell's face to know that the other man's thoughts were similar to his own thoughts on this matter; unless their luck drastically changed in the next few hours, neither of those scenarios were likely to happen...


	47. Harry Flies Again

Looking out at the darkening landscape spread out in front of the cave, night having set on the Gamma site planet as they waited for some kind of sign of the bugs they'd been running from earlier, Daniel cursed his poor luck.

What was it about SG-1 which meant that any mission they went on would almost invariably result in the worst possible outcome taking place? He could probably count on one hand the amount of times they'd gone on a mission where absolutely everything had worked out according to plan; some missions might only include minor variations to what they expected to happen, such as some ruins turning up more interesting information than what they'd expected to find, and then there were the missions like this when everything seemed to go wrong.

If it wasn't for the fact that they'd still dealt with this kind of problem during the year when he was ascended and Jonas was on the team in his place, Daniel would have wondered if it was something to do with him; as it was, he just chalked it up to the kind of bad luck that had created someone like Voldemort in the first place and left it alone.

The cave had now been set up with various small lanterns as they ate what rations they'd managed to grab during their escape, but with the delegates and the military stuck for solutions to their current situation, Daniel was left with nothing else to occupy his time but to continue his earlier conversation with Shen, walking over to where the clearly-shaken delegate was sitting. With no other immediate openings to start the conversation, he handed a food bar to her, which she registered with a faint smile.

"On the bright side," Shen said, a slight tremor in her voice the only sign of her fear at the situation they were currently in, "I was worried that my report would make for a boring read."

"So," Daniel said, looking solemnly at her as he passed her the bar, "I'm guessing that we're going to lose points for this particular... incident."

"To be honest with you, my report is a mere formality," Shen said after taking the bar. "Ultimately it'll have no bearing on my government's plan of action in regard to the Stargate Program."

"Ah," Daniel said, giving Shen a brief glare as he took in what she'd just said. "And this is _after_ my last little speech?"

"You made some... interesting points, but-" Shen began, with the start of a firm tone in her voice as she looked at him.

"God, it's the goddamn Ministry all over again," Daniel said, sighing as he sat back on the ground and stared up at the ceiling.

"Excuse me?" Shen asked, looking curiously at him, even if she appeared to be less shocked than she had been at the previous interruption.

"It's like what I said during our talk in the commissary," Daniel said, looking resolutely at Shen. "You and your government are thinking of _nothing_ but improving your own reputation by being the one to control the Stargate program; does the fact that you won't have any of the connections we've come to rely on when dealing with our most dangerous threat ever mean anything?"

"Are you implying-?" Shen began, glaring at him.

"I'm _saying_ that you don't have the time or resources to deal with this kind of situation and it would be a mistake for you to even try; I'd say the same thing if it was any other government in the situation," Daniel said firmly. "Besides, the last time I checked, the Gate Alliance Treaty prohibits us from using offworld-acquired technology in purely Earth-based conflicts unless we're absolutely certain that _not_ using it will only result in greater death on all sides; if you're worried that we'll eventually just turn against you, I'd like to remind you that we have been recruiting an international spectrum of scientists and soldiers to ensure that something like that _can't_ happen."

"Treaties can be bent-" Shen said.

"And _you_ need to have faith that certain people won't allow that to happen," Daniel said firmly. "People and governments can be flawed, but there are also those who are genuinely trying to do the right thing just because it's the right thing rather than looking for the right thing to benefit themselves; I've got a close friend in a position of power back in England who I can guarantee shares my views, and she's worked in politics ever since we both left school."

After giving her a chance to process what he had just said, he sat back down alongside her, looking at the Chinese delegate with a reassuring smile. "Like I said earlier, I'll do what I can to argue in favour of your country getting more out of the treaty than you do at the moment, but we've survived this long because the SGC as it presently exists has done a lot of work to get us to this point; you aren't going to get everything we've set up over the years just because you gain control of the Stargate and _may_ acquire a few pre-existing operatives."

"I... see," Shen said, looking at Daniel with that unreadable expression that the vast majority of capable politicians seemed to be obliged to learn (Umbridge was the only real exception that Harry had ever encountered; even Fudge could make himself look convincingly sympathetic, but Umbridge tried too hard to be 'nice' that she was obviously putting it on).

"Like I said," Daniel said, trying to sound less harsh as he looked at the Chinese representative- she was primarily thinking of her country's reputation and status rather than just hers, after all-, "I'll do what I can to argue in favour of giving you access to more of what we've discovered through the Stargate; I just... well, you're not ready to set up your own Stargate program with the galaxy in its present state, and there's too many other factors to make it practical for you to set up your own program while shutting down ours even after this crisis is over."

Shen simply stared silently back at Daniel after that last statement, but the slightly contemplative, questioning look in her eye as she studied him was enough for Daniel at the moment.

Maybe he hadn't convinced her to completely abandon her pre-existing views, but he'd made her think about what she had been planning previously; when dealing with the likes of Shen, that alone was a victory.

* * *

  
"We have heard nothing from the Gamma site since we left," Teal'c said as the group of delegates and soldiers sat around their small campfire a few hours later, attempts to contact the Gamma Site via radio having met with failure and the delegates increasingly dishevelled after the day's activity. "I fear we must assume the worst and plan accordingly."

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing," Mitchell said, looking grimly around at his teammates.

"We cannot remain here indefinitely," Teal'c said. "Eventually this position will be overrun."

"Yeah, we need to get as far away as possible," Mitchell said, before he looked over at Daniel. "Could you make one of those 'Portkey' things-?"

"No," Daniel said, shaking his head.

"Just 'no'?" Sam repeated, looking at him in surprise.

"I did some research regarding how to make portkeys after I started working at the SGC- some can be activated by a verbal command if you know what you're doing and I thought that it could be a useful trick if the situation turned ugly-, but all of them depend on using the natural magic in the environment around them to coordinate the path to their destination," Daniel explained. "Even if we're correct with the assumption that magic is discorporated naquadah, there's just not enough of it on this planet, and it would probably be too rigid to direct me anywhere anyway."

"How about that apparation thing?" Mitchell asked.

"Possible, but it's too difficult for me to take too many people at once, and I could only make so many journeys before I ran out of energy anyway; considering how out of practice I am, I wouldn't like to risk it," Daniel replied, before he shrugged slightly. "Besides, where would I take anyone? The Stargate's still in the Gamma site, so we can't even try to escape that way without just jumping straight back into danger, and there's nowhere else for us to go-"

"But there _is_ somewhere that we could _wait_ ," Sam said, snapping her fingers as a thought occurred to her, the scientist smiling as she looked at Daniel. "When we were talking about magic, you mentioned one spell that could increase the internal space of an object so that it was bigger inside than outside?"

"Yeah..." Daniel said, looking uncertainly at her. "Where are you going with this?"

"The F-302s," Sam said, smiling at him. "If they're still intact back at the base, we can use them to escape; a few... expansion charms?" She paused to look at Daniel, only continuing when he had nodded at her in confirmation that she had used the correct term. "With a few expansion charms on the cockpits, we might have enough space to get everyone here out of range of the bugs."

"Maybe even make it into orbit to wait to get picked up?" Mitchell suggested, shrugging when he noticed the others looking at him in surprise. "Hey, if we had a chance at stopping those things, I'd be all for it, but I think we're all agreed that we don't have enough raid to take out that many carnivorous insects right now?"

"Point," Daniel said, sighing slightly as he looked at the cave entrance. "Numbers are always a problem when you're dealing with insects; it was one of the main issues we had with Aragog..."

"Who?" Sam asked.

"Hagrid's pet acromantula; haven't I mentioned him?" Daniel asked, looking curiously at his friends.

"Uh... you mentioned a giant spider he tried to raise as a kid; does that have anything to do with it?" Mitchell asked, after a moment of thoughtful silence as he tried to remember the story.

"Well, long story short, even if part of the problem Ron and I had when we ended up walking into Aragog's nest on our first meeting with him was their sheer size, the numbers we were up against were also the problem," Daniel explained, nodding in confirmation of Mitchell's recollection. "We could stop some of them, but the numbers would have eventually stopped us... well, until his dad's flying car saved us."

"Your friend's dad had a flying car?" Mitchell said, looking at him in surprise.

"It was only for a brief period; he lost it after an incident in my second year and was never able to replace it," Daniel explained, before he returned his story to the present. "The point is, the F-302s are definitely our best bet at survival, and I should be able to apparate Cam and Teal'c there; all we can do then is keep moving and hope for the best."

"Hope?" Mitchell said, his initial amusement replaced by scepticism at this news.

"Hope that the bugs haven't already rendered them useless," Daniel clarified.

"Point," Mitchell said, nodding grimly at the archaeologist/wizard before he stood up and shrugged. "Well, we should probably get going before anything else goes too wrong..."

"Indeed," Teal'c said, looking briefly at the delegates before looking at Sam. "Good luck, Colonel Carter."

"We'll be back soon," Daniel said, looking at her in apology for leaving her with the delegates, once again wishing that he could share what he really felt about it- he could put them aside sometimes, but when faced with something this risky he just wanted to be able to tell her the truth- before he turned around and headed out of the cave with Mitchell and Teal'c.

"So," Mitchell asked, after they'd been walking for a few minutes and were out of visual sight of the cave- they didn't want to apparate too close to the cave in case a delegate saw them and started asking why Daniel hadn't done that for them earlier-, their last message from current guard Airman Walker confirming that all was well back there, "shall we?"

"Just hold on tight," Daniel said, placing a hand on both mens' shoulders and focusing on the first destination...

* * *

  
After the familiar unpleasant feeling of being sucked through a massive pipe had passed, the three men were standing on a hill overlooking the gamma site, the base still looking comparatively undisturbed despite the chaos that either had or was waging inside it.

"So, what's the plan?" Daniel asked; in a situation like this, focusing on what he could do was more important and practical than thinking about who he hadn't been able to save.

"Depends," Mitchell said, looking back at the wizard (For this moment, Daniel's wizarding training was more important than his archaeological background). "Can you actually do those... size charm things you and Sam were talking about, or were you just saying you can potentially do them without _knowing_ you can do them?"

"I can," Daniel said. "I had a quick crash-course from Hermione in how to do them a few days ago- she prepared a few bags for us using those charms when we were hunting horcruxes-; it won't be as impressive as what she did, but I should be able to fit the remaining delegates and personnel into three F-302s."

"Three?" Mitchell said. "But we've only got two pilots... oh, hold on-"

"It's not like you're putting a rookie in a combat situation; all I have to do is get them from A to B," Daniel said, looking firmly at his friend. "I know they're not exactly broomsticks, but I can do it."

"You believe that you are capable of flying such a craft, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asked.

"I've gone over most of the plans and I've gone flying with Sam and Jack on a few occasions; I won't be doing anything too elaborate, but I'll be able to get it where we need to go," Daniel said.

"OK," Mitchell said, nodding in understanding as he looked at the base once again before turning back to his teammates. "We get to the hanger, get into the F-302s, and bail out as fast as possible; judging by the amount of bugs that were there last time we were inside and the lack of news since then, I think it's safe to assume that anybody left there isn't in any state to be helped."

"Simple, but effective," Teal'c said.

"Glad you approve," Mitchell said, before he looked back at Daniel. "OK then, Jackson; let's go."

Nodding in agreement, Daniel once again placed his hands on his teammates' shoulders.

* * *

  
Reappearing in the hang on the wings of one of the F-302s, Daniel was glad to see that his intuition had been unnecessary; apparently the hanger had gone into lockdown early enough during the bugs' initial 'break-out' that they hadn't managed to enter this part of the base yet, even if it meant that nobody had been able to retreat to the hanger for safety either.

"Nice aim," Mitchell said, nodding in approval at Daniel before he looked at the fighters around them. "So, do we do this here, or get them out first?"

"Considering that this base has a self-destruct and we're dealing with rather complicated charms, I'd go with getting everything out now and worrying about the charms later," Daniel said.

"Sounds fine to me," Mitchell said, glancing at the other F-302s in the hanger bay before he turned and literally ran across the fighter they were currently standing on, jumping off its wing to land on the wing of the next fighter along.

Daniel had to give the man credit; it was an unorthodox way of going from fighter to fighter, but it got the job done.

As the lieutenant colonel headed for the cockpit of the fighter he'd jumped on to, Teal'c followed his example and quickly jumped on to the nearest F-302 on their side of the ship, leaving Daniel to get into the cockpit of the F-302 that he was currently standing on. Having run a quick pre-flight check, Daniel started the ship's engines and flew out of the hanger, Mitchell and Teal'c's F-302s just ahead of him, the old instincts that had served him so well over his years of playing Quidditch aiding him in his search for new heights as he flew through the air away from the gamma site, his friends in the lead.

He might wish that he'd been able to save some of the staff in the gamma site, but even magic couldn't perform miracles; sometimes, all you could do was accept what opportunities you had and leave everything else to cope on its own.

" _Jackson, this is Mitchell_ ," Mitchell's voice said.

"Yes?" Daniel replied, activating the radio himself.

" _We're heading for the mountains; Teal'c recalls some kind of clearing in that area from when he spent some time surveying this area where we can settle down and let you do your thing_ ," Mitchell explained. " _He's fairly sure they're not too far from the caves, either; should cover everything, wouldn't you say_?"

"Sounds like a plan," Daniel said, nodding in understanding; with the bugs' apparent difficulty travelling through rock, moving the F-302s to the mountain would give him more time to work while Teal'c and Mitchell went to collect the delegates.

It would be a challenge, of course, but it was at least one that he felt he could manage; he'd need the time to get the charms right, but once he'd sorted the first one the rest should be fine...


	48. Abandon Gamma

"Let me ask you a question," Mitchell asked, he and Teal'c now walking back towards the caves while Jackson worked his magic- Mitchell wasn't sure he'd ever lose the urge to grin now that he'd discovered that Daniel possessed literal magic- on the F-302s. "All the years you were fighting the Goa'uld, did you ever just step back and say, sooner or later our luck's going to run out: we're going to get our asses kicked?"

"Never," Teal'c replied.

"Never," Mitchell repeated. "Not once. Even though you were massively outnumbered, fighting an opponent with superior technology and firepower."

"They may have had the superior forces and resources, but we possessed something far greater," Teal'c said firmly.

"Which was?" Mitchell asked.

"A just cause," Teal'c replied, his tone equally resolute. "I had no doubt the Goa'uld would be defeated. Perhaps not in my lifetime, but I knew eventually they would fall. And I have no doubt the same fate awaits the Ori."

"See, that's what I like about you," Mitchell said, smiling over at Teal'c. "You're always positive. Hell, you're probably already past this bug situation, thinking about what movie you want to watch tomorrow night."

"I was considering 'Old School'," Teal'c said.

"'My Boy Blue'," Mitchell countered, only for the conversation to be interrupted by the sound of a loud explosion coming from some distance behind them, a glance back revealing a slowly rising column of smoke.

"The self-destruct?" Mitchell asked, looking back at Teal'c.

"Most likely RL-65 managed to access and trigger the system while devouring the base," Teal'c confirmed, looking thoughtfully at the smoke. "If Daniel Jackson had not apparated us to the base, we would doubtless never have made it in time to recover the F-302s."

"Yeah, on that topic, I've been meaning to ask; how do you _feel_ about the fact that he's been keeping that kind of talent secret for so long?" Mitchell asked. "I mean, Jackson could have done more than he did..."

"Daniel Jackson has assured us that he would have taken action if he was certain that doing so would have benefited us; I have no reason to doubt his judgement in making such a decision," Teal'c said, looking firmly back at Mitchell. "His stories and the tales of his friends have made it clear that he lacked the experience to remove a Goa'uld from a host via the use of magic, and in all other cases where magic was possible there was a technological and viable alternative method of taking action, which he naturally resorted to in order to avoid forcing himself to relive unpleasant memories."

"Ah," Mitchell said, lost for anything else that he could say to that statement, before turning his attention back to their walk. "Well, let's keep going; we're almost there, after all."

"You have not voiced your own thoughts on Daniel Jackson's secret," Teal'c said, looking inquiringly at Mitchell.

"Hey, Jackson wants to keep some things quiet, he's earned the right after everything he's been through; I just wondered how you felt considering how long he's been keeping the wizard thing secret from you guys, rather than anything else," Mitchell clarified, smiling reassuringly at Teal'c before they returned their attention to their walk.

As they arrived back at the cave, neither man was surprised to see Woolsey and Sam standing near the entrance, Woolsey looking anxious while Sam had the frustrated-yet-calm look that both men knew meant that she was fighting the urge to hit something.

"…the reality is, for the time being, we are stuck here," Sam said, glaring at Woolsey. "Trapped in this cave, surrounded by predatory insects with no way of getting to the Stargate. Now I'm sorry, but I'm going to have a hard time mustering up a convincing pep talk, all things considered."

"I see," Woolsey said, looking grimly back at Sam. "In that case-"

"Hello, campers," Mitchell said, grinning at the two men, Carter and Woolsey turning to look at him and Teal'c with obvious surprise.

"You're back?" Carter said, grinning enthusiastically at them before her smile faltered. "But… where's Daniel?"

"Enhancing the interior space of the F-302s we salvaged from the base before it blew so that we can use them to get everyone off this planet until additional support arrives," Mitchell said, grinning at the shocked expression on Woolsey's face. "It's a tricky manoeuvre, but Jackson seemed pretty sure that he could do it; should be enough to get us to safety until back-up gets here, anyway."

"And… it's safe?" Woolsey asked.

"It is as reliable as any of the alternatives that we have conceived to deal with the threat facing us at present," Teal'c said, with a pointed stare at Woolsey as though seeking to practically burn his next words into Woolsey's brain. "We are taking all steps possible to cope with this unanticipated attack, and Daniel Jackson has provided us with a means of evading these insects until additional support arrives; I would suggest that we use it."

"Ver… very well," Woolsey said, clearly deciding from the glare in Teal'c's eyes that going along with the Jaffa's suggestion would be the best strategy to ensure his long-term survival at this time. "I'll just… let the others know, shall I?"

"That would be most wise," Teal'c said, nodding in confirmation at Woolsey.

"There a problem we should know about?" Mitchell asked, looking anxiously at Sam.

"If we can get up in the F-302s, and Daniel's plan works… hopefully not," Sam said, looking reassuringly at her friend. "Under normal circumstances, in this kind of situation, the _Odyssey_ would enact Protocol CR-91 and bomb the planet with something to wipe out the bugs before looking for us, but if we can get up into space we should be safe enough; we may even manage to get picked up before the planet's attacked."

"In other words, all's under control," Mitchell said, smiling at her. "Good to know."

* * *

  
Staring at the now-expanded interiors of the F-302s, the result of care and effort to use a spell that Hermione had only been able to give him a brief refresher on, Daniel nodded in satisfaction at the result.

He'd had to take some time to make sure that the charms would hold- he'd been going through a few 'crash courses' with Hermione and the twins when they'd been able to spare the time to do so, but this wasn't exactly something he'd ever expected to do-, but he thought the final result worked. Knowing that he couldn't do anything to expand the F-302's exterior without affecting its ability to fly, he'd started his work by increasing the space between the seat and the glass cover, expanding the sides only after the seat had 'sunk' to the point where the space on either side could be expanded without interfering with the ship's electrical systems.

With only five delegates and a few soldiers with them, Daniel had expanded the seats to accommodate three additional riders per ship in the secondary pilot's seat, reasoning that Sam, Mitchell and Teal'c would prefer to be alone in the pilot's seat (He had enjoyed his earlier flight, but in a situation like this the delegates would probably prefer the more experienced Sam as their pilot).

Looking at what he'd just accomplished, he was almost relieved that he'd revealed his magic to his teammates for a reason that didn't involve Voldemort's return for the first time; if this mission had happened when he was still acting as Daniel Jackson, he might have been tempted to try and help, but he just wouldn't have had sufficient confidence in his unpractised magic to even try and attempt something like this. The expanded interior space might be a gamble, but it was one that he felt reasonably comfortable attempting; a ship should be on its way to collect them already, so it shouldn't have to hold out for longer than a couple of days at most…

He just wished that finding Voldemort could be as straightforward as this was. He'd tried to attempt a couple of other meditation sessions to regain his original contact with his enemy's mind, but either Voldemort had re-established his Occlumency barriers or what he'd done to find out how Voldemort had come back had been simply a last gasp across a connection he'd long believed had been destroyed when Voldemort was; he'd vaguely sensed that Voldemort was there during his later efforts, but that was about it.

"Daniel?" a familiar voice said, Daniel turning around to smile in relief at the sight of his teammates walking towards the modified planes, Mitchell and Sam leading the delegates while Teal'c brought up the rear.

"Hey, guys," he said, nodding in relief at them before he indicated the fighters behind him. "Well, everything's in order; I wouldn't recommend keeping these like this for longer than we have to, but they should be enough to get us up in the air."

"You're referring to these… expansion charms Colonel Mitchell informed us that you were performing?" Woolsey asked, looking uncertainly between Daniel and the fighters. "I was under the impression-"

"I've had a lot of time to practise my spellwork since I got back in touch with my old friends, and this isn't the time to be asking too many questions about that; can we just focus on what's important right now and get off this planet?" Daniel said, looking firmly at Woolsey. "I get that this isn't what you were expecting when you came offworld, but as it is we're here, the bugs are back there, and this is the only way any of us are going to get off this planet alive, so stop complaining and get inside, OK?"

"Understood," Woolsey said, after a moment's pause as he glared at the archaeologist.

"Good," Daniel said, before he looked over at Sam and Mitchell. "Uh… could you talk to the rest of the delegates? I think they'd take any plan you tell them about better than anything I'd say right now…"

"Sure," Sam said, smiling at him in understanding before she turned to look at the rest of the delegates and the remaining additional soldiers. "OK, so we're proceeding with the assumption that RL-65 can't get up here any time soon and _Odyssey_ will be arriving before the next couple of days have gone by; if we can get out of the atmosphere and set up position in a geostationary orbit over the gamma site's former location, we should be in a good location to get picked up by their sensors when they get here."

"And we're all expected to fit in _those_?" Shen said, looking sceptically at the F-302s.

"I've… used a few old tricks to make some modifications," Daniel said, shrugging slightly as the delegates looked at him. "It wouldn't be practical to use this long-term, but it'll hold out for our current purposes."

"I object to-" the British delegate began, looking at Daniel with an expression that reminded him of Fudge's attempt to protest about Dumbledore's suggested courses of action after the Triwizard Tournament when

"You make voice your objections to Daniel Jackson's use of his previously-undisclosed talents and past history once we are safe, or you may be left here and be killed by the insects or the toxins; I will be content with either scenario," Teal'c said, shooting a firm glare at the British delegate. After a moment's pause, the other man apparently conceded Teal'c's point, and simply stood up and walked over to one of the ships, allowing time for the rest of SG-1 to help the delegates into each F-302 before boarding them themselves. Daniel found himself in Sam's F-302 with Woolsey and Shen, leaving Mitchell with the other delegates while Teal'c took the soldiers.

After the pre-flight checks were completed, the F-302s took off from their makeshift runway- straight and flat enough to make a reasonably comfortable take-off- even if they wouldn't be using it for that purpose on a regular basis even if they rebuilt the gamma site-, followed by as rapid an ascent as possible to leave the planet's atmosphere. In a matter of minutes, the three fighters were in deep space, their pilots moving them into geosynchronous orbit over the gamma site's former location before turning the engines off.

"All right," Sam said, turning around slightly in her chair to look at Daniel as he sat in the middle of the expanded rear seat, "how long do you think we'll have to wait until these… charms become ineffective?"

"I don't know for sure," Daniel said. "I know how long these can last when a professional performs them, but I'm a bit out of practise, and the fact that we're keeping them active away from Earth introduces an x-factor that I'm not sure about. Even if we're right about naquadah being basically solidified magic, there's only so much power we can rely on before we drain the naquadria core; it's not like we can _know_ how much energy they'll need to create something like this."

"Are you saying that we might-?" Shen asked.

"There's nothing to worry about," Daniel said grimly. "Even in a worst-case scenario, there's no way we'll just run out of a power all of a sudden; we might be a bit uncomfortable if we have to wait here for too long, but we can make it work."

"And how do we wait in the meantime?" Woolsey asked.

"Twenty Questions?" Sam asked, looking at her friend and the two delegates with a slight smile, the suggestion obviously an awkward one even as Daniel acknowledged the lack of alternatives she could have suggested instead.

* * *

  
Once he was back on Earth, Daniel had to admit that he had never been more relieved to be back on solid ground; that whole experience had been the most uncomfortable situation he'd ever been in that didn't actually involve anyone who'd wanted to kill him. Shen and Woolsey were only colleagues at best, he and Sam felt uncomfortable sharing most of their more amusing or personal anecdotes with the two IOA delegates in such close proximity, and neither of them had anything they particularly wanted to discuss with the IOA members, so they were left just sitting around and waiting out of a lack of anything to say to each other. After they were picked up by the _Odyssey_ , Mitchell had confirmed a similarly low opinion of the social situation he'd found himself dealing with in his F-302 for the same reason; Teal'c was the only one who'd had a relatively comfortable time, talking relatively casually with the soldiers in his ship about some recent missions.

Quite frankly, it had been a great relief to see _Odyssey_ emerge from hyperspace and allow them to board before it bombed the planet below them; the F-302s might have still been large enough inside to hold them in relative comfort physically, but their psychological state would have had trouble if they'd had to remain cooped up like that for much longer.

Still, as Daniel sat at his usual seat in the SGC briefing room, along with the rest of his team, General Landry, and Mr Woolsey, he was once again glad to be home after a harrowing day's work; life on SG-1 would never be reliable, but at least he could always be sure that he'd have an interesting time.

"All delegates have returned to their respective countries and duties, none the worse for wear," Woolsey said, looking over the report in front of him before looking back at the group around him.

"What kind of fall-out should we be expecting from all this?" Landry asked.

"Surprisingly minimal," Woolsey replied. "You may face an official reprimand, but the IOA recognizes the fact that these were circumstances beyond your control."

"Good," Mitchell said, looking around at the rest of the team.

"Of course," Woolsey added, prompting a frustrated groan from Mitchell, "I should go on record as noting that my British colleague, Mr Chapman, resents the fact that the British government have yet to receive any official acknowledgement of their assistance in recent events-"

"I have been informed by Minister Granger that the affairs of the Ministry of Magic and the affairs of the British government are generally only indirectly affiliated with each other," Landry said. "Should the occasion arise where compensation is demanded or obligated, you may assure Mr Chapman that we will of course recognise his country's contribution to our defence, but until then I am dealing directly with Minister Granger concerning the British wizarding world's contributions to our efforts, considering that she is their duly elected leader and representative as well as being a friend of Doctor Jackson."

"And before Chapman says anything else," Daniel said, looking firmly at Woolsey- the Chinese probably felt more comfortable making him a public offer considering their greater power on the world stage, but that didn't mean that Britain wouldn't think about making an offer or two themselves-, "you can tell him that I applied for and received American citizenship when I first came to this country almost two decades ago, and my only ties to Britain these days are those I have with my friends, who are perfectly comfortable with me as Daniel Jackson; if he attempts to use this revelation to argue that Britain deserves more credit because I was born there, you can tell him that I'm not legally British any more so what I do has no bearing on Britain and can't be used as a bargaining chip even if I wanted to be one."

"I shall… keep that in mind," Woolsey said, swallowing slightly before he turned his attention back to the rest of SG-1. "I acknowledge that it may seem like they do an inordinate amount of complaining, but- off the record- the IOA has nothing but praise for the job you're doing here. Just don't let it go to your heads."

"We won't," Daniel said firmly.

They'd all seen the consequences of power gone mad too often for them to _ever_ let that happen to them…

"Well, I'm heading back to Washington," Woolsey said, sliding back in his chair and standing up as he adjusted his jacket. "Thank you for the tour; it was an… eye-opening experience."

With those words, he turned and left the briefing room, leaving SG-1 alone with Landry.

"While you were gone, we received reports that two more planets have been hit by these bugs," the general said. "R&D are working on solutions that target these insects without harming other plant and animal life."

"Any news on the Death Eaters?" Daniel asked.

"Nothing definite, but we're keeping an ear to the ground," Landry said, his expression becoming more solemn as he looked at the group around him. "I thought I'd lost you there; nice to have you back."

With nothing else to say to that statement, SG-1 just smiled in response as Landry left the room, leaving Daniel to look over at the others.

"So," he said with a slight smile, "we, uh, still doing movie night?"

He might want to continue his research into some of the Grail-related material they'd discovered- he had a feeling that he was getting close to something with his latest theory-, but after everything he'd been through, he'd prefer an opportunity to unwind in a relaxing environment before he had to do something that intellectually challenging…


	49. Morpheus

"OK, so you're telling us that you fought alien bugs and forgot to call us about it?" Fred asked, looking at SG-1 with a sceptical expression, the rest of SG-M gathered around Sam's lab as they heard about their allies' latest mission.

"It's not like we had the time to pick up the phone and call," Mitchell pointed out. "We were on a show-and-tell trip that turned nasty; by the time we knew what we were up against, we were in too deep to call you for back-up."

"Still sucks," George said, sighing over-dramatically as he looked at their friends. "Still, that _would_ have been cool…"

"It wasn't," Sam said grimly. "Trust me, George; when you see those things in action, all you want to do is get away."

"Uh… sure," George said, looking awkwardly at the female lieutenant colonel, the intensity of her stare forestalling any thoughts he might have had of continuing to joke about the subject. "So… what's the next plan?"

"I got it!" Daniel said, hurrying into the room with a broad grin on his face and a book in his

hand, cutting off whatever response the rest of his teammates and Hogwarts allies might have made to that query. "I made the connection! Sir Gawain to Gwalchmei. Culwhch and Olwen. Verus Gen Bree."

"Uh… Harry?" Lupin asked, looking uncertainly at his best friend's son. "Are you all right?"

"Oh, sorry," Daniel said, smiling awkwardly at the others before he put the book down. "It's Vagonbrei. One of the planets Arthur and his knights went to in their quest for the Holy Grail. I got the gate address."

"In other words… we have a clue to that 'Sangraal' thing?" Tonks asked, looking hopefully at the archaeologist.

"Hopefully," Daniel said with a smile.

Sam couldn't blame him for the smile; even if Voldemort was the more personal adversary they were dealing with at the moment, she knew that Daniel still harboured some guilt about his role in the Ori's discovery of their existence.

They weren't having any luck finding Voldemort or the Death Eaters at the moment, but if they could deal with the Ori, or at least come _close_ to finding some clue…

Well, that would be another load of guilt off the shoulders of the man who never deserved to have such a burden forced upon him.

* * *

  
A few minutes later, SG-1 and SG-M were sitting around the briefing room table, General Landry at the head of the dual team briefing as Daniel pulled out a file before taking his seat.

"OK," he said, looking at the rest of the group. "While on PX1-767, we got the names of three planets: Castiana, Sahal, and Vagonbrei. Three possible destinations for Arthur and his knights in their quest for the Holy Grail, what we know to be Merlin's weapon."

"Turning a needle in a haystack search into a more restricted search pattern," Hermione added with a smile.

"Right," Daniel said, nodding at her. "Unfortunately, what we didn't get were any corresponding gate addresses, and the process of going through that library page by page looking for clues could have potentially taken years. So, I knew we were going to have to narrow the search parameters a little. That's when it hit me: Sir Gawain."

"Wasn't he one of the Knights Who Say 'Ni'?" Mitchell asked, as Hermione opened Daniel's book to reveal an illustration that Daniel had earlier identified for her.

"He was a Knight of the Round Table," Daniel explained, as he took the book and moved it into the middle of the table, showing them various illustrations. "In one of his earliest incarnations, an old Welsh tale, he went on a quest to help rescue a lost love. The legend says that Sir Gawain, AKA Gwalchmei, visited several lands over the course of his adventure, including a place called _Gwlad Gan Brenhinol Gwir_ , which is Welsh for 'Land of Royal Truth'. Translate that into Ancient, and you get 'Verus Gen Bree'- Vagonbrei."

"So… how does that get us a gate address?" Sam asked, looking uncertainly at Daniel.

"Uh, it doesn't," Daniel explained, pulling out another book. "But it did give me something very specific to look for in Merlin's library, namely references to Gawain. Now, based on this information, I started scanning through the titles, and I found this. Now, the entire volume is dedicated to Gawain's adventures and includes several very interesting illustrations, including a depiction of a sword he once carried. Note the symbols engraved on the blade."

As Landry took the book from Daniel, he traced his finger down the illustration of the blade for a few moments, easily interpreting the black symbols beside the sword.

"A gate address," he said, excitement clear in his voice as he looked up at the archaeologist.

"Vagonbrei?" Tonks asked.

"Well, we won't know until we check it out," Daniel said.

"Very well done, Doctor," Landry said, nodding in approval of the archaeologist's discovery.

"We're going with them, huh?" Tonks asked.

"Considering what emerged the last time we went on a mission involving Merlin, it would probably be for the best if we dispatched a joint magic and conventional team on this one," Landry explained. "You'll both be heading for the planet as soon as possible; with Voldemort and the Ori on our backs, the sooner we can take action to eliminate _one_ of them, the better."

* * *

  
Having arrived at their destination, Daniel had to admit that, so far, he wasn't feeling entirely comfortable about their chances of finding something useful, regardless of the fact that the village archives where he was currently carrying out his research appeared to have been left intact by whatever had happened. The abandoned village and the darkened environment had been foreboding enough on its own, but the persistently overcast fog did little to improve his mood, even before the team had discovered the bodies in one of the houses.

If he hadn't had Hermione and Lupin check the bodies themselves, he would have suspected magical involvement; considering his faith, with magic ruled out and modern medicine having failed to uncover anything useful as of yet, there was no other obvious explanation for what had killed those people, and this whole place did little to improve his mood, considering the bleak atmosphere of a village through of skeletons that just seemed to have lain down and died for no apparent reason.

"Did the village records give an indication as to what befell these people?" Teal'c asked, walking over to sit down beside him.

"No," Daniel said, shaking his head as he studied the texts before him. "However, it does make mention to some of the ancient lore tied to the area. See, according to legend, a cave overlooking the village was once home to Morgan Le Fay."

Looking over at Teal'c, Daniel restrained his initial incredulity at Teal'c's ignorance of that name- it wasn't like Teal'c would have had any reason to look up Arthurian mythology before now-, and hastened to provide his friend with an explanation. "Ah, in Arthurian myth, Morgan was a powerful sorceress, King Arthur's half-sister and an adversary of Merlin."

"That would suggest that she is involved in the disappearance of the weapon we seek," Teal'c noted.

"Now," Daniel continued, talking half to Teal'c and half to himself, "Morgan, like Merlin, was a purported magic user, so it makes sense that again, like Merlin, she was once ascended."

"One who foresaw the dangers presented to her and her kind by a weapon capable of destroying ascended beings," Teal'c noted.

"And the reason that we don't assume she was just a regular witch is…?" Tonks asked, looking curiously at her friends.

"Witches in that time were already using the memory charm," Hermione explained, looking over at Mitchell and Sam as she continued her explanation. "We've always assumed that Merlin and Morgana were trying to improve magic's reputation with the general population by allowing their powers to be publically known- well, Merlin was doing it for those reasons; considering what Morgana was meant to be doing, we assumed that she just wanted to be feared-, but the concept of them as former Ascended beings makes more sense; they wouldn't need to worry about secrecy because they weren't part of the magical world and therefore weren't giving _us_ away."

"Ah," Mitchell said in understanding.

"So," Daniel continued, "she took the weapon from Merlin and went into hiding..."

"On three possible worlds," Teal'c finished for the archaeologist. "Of which this is but one."

"We've got to find that cave," Daniel said, his expression grave as he studied the texts before him.

Given the lack of textual information about the cave he'd come here to find in the first place, it looked like they were going to need to resort to more direct search methods rather than research…

* * *

  
Staring at the new wave of papers he'd pulled from the planet's archives, Daniel groaned in frustration.

Even with Hermione to suggest a few other methods of cross-referencing- he'd built up his own system of searching for records over the years he'd studied on Earth and carried out research away from Hogwarts, but another perspective wasn't exactly a bad thing-, this archive was proving to be frustratingly difficult to search; starting with the fact that he wasn't sure there was anything useful here, this was all becoming pointlessly difficult…

"Med team's wrapping it up," Mitchell said as he walked into the room, walking up to the table covered in books that Daniel had brought together. "Figured we'd do the same; SG-M hasn't found anything particularly noteworthy either."

"This can't be a dead end," Daniel said, taking off his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose in frustration. "There has to be something here…"

"Take it up with Landry," Mitchell said, briefly opening a book near him and glancing at its contents. "You can come back tomorrow, knock yourself out, strain your eyes all you want."

"You're right," Daniel said, sighing in resignation as he gathered up his notes and looked around the room. "I could probably get a fresh start in the morning."

"All right," Mitchell said, as he and Daniel joined the rest of the teams in the street, "Jackson's done; let's go home."

"Hang on a minute," one of the other soldiers said. "Where's Ackerman?"

Daniel suddenly had a very bad feeling about this latest unexplained absence; when they were in a village that had been mysteriously abandoned by everyone, the possible explanations for a missing teammate were not encouraging…

* * *

  
The discovery that Ackerman has fallen asleep in a nearby cabin might not have been a particular point of concern at first- it was unprofessional, but it wasn't like they hadn't had a long day and encountered little else to keep them occupied while working-, but when taken into account along with the lack of animal activity in their area and their inability to wake him up after finding him, it didn't take long to realise that something unnatural had happened to him.

"And we're _sure_ he's asleep no matter what?" Mitchell asked, looking at his team in frustration before his gaze focused on the brightest witch present. "Don't you have spells that can-?"

"I already tried _ennervate_ , but it's no good; whatever this is, it's as powerful as the Draught of Living Death with no immediate sign of an antidote," Hermione said, looking grimly at the sleeping doctor. "I can probably keep us awake with some charms, but whatever knocked him out is apparently powerful enough to ensure that he stays out until…"

"Until he ends up like everyone else here?" Fred asked, indicating the village around them with a slightly panicked edge to his tone. "We're stuck on this dump until we can find out whatever's causing this mess, facing death by staying asleep for too long, and you're telling us we're all infected with… whatever this is… so we can't even go home?"

"We have quarantine procedures for a reason-" Sam said.

"We _get_ it," Hermione said, sighing slightly in frustration as she looked at the blonde woman. "It doesn't mean we _like_ it, but we get it."

"What exactly is wrong with us anyway?" Lupin asked.

"Well, like Ackerman, all of our bloodwork shows an elevated white cell count and a marked increase in seratonin levels; we just don't know precisely what that means in this case," the attached doctor said apologetically.

"So no way of identifying the pathogen itself," Daniel said with a sigh. " _Great_ …"

"OK, so we have to stay awake; get a few of those pepper-up potions sent through, and how hard can that be?" Mitchell asked with a hopeful smile.

"Harder than you'd think," Hermione said grimly. "Those things might keep us awake, but I wouldn't like to predict what our psychological state will be like if we have to use them for too long; keeping us awake isn't the same as taking away our _need_ for sleep."

"Eh?" Fred said, looking at Hermione in confusion.

"We need to sleep to give our minds a chance to subconsciously process various conflicts during the day- whether through dreams or just with the opportunity to turn off-; actually taking away our need to sleep completely could result in our magic manifesting in various unusual and uncontrollable ways that… well, they could be dangerous," Hermione said, before looking at the twins with a more pointed stare. "Honestly, you do all that work on your products, and you don't pay attention to the consequences of sleep deprivation?"

"Hey, you know we tend to focus more on giving people a chance to take a break; why would we _need_ to know stuff like that?" George pointed out. "We give customers a chance _to_ sleep- maybe get in some extra revision done if they're _really_ desperate-, but where's the point in us making something to keep people awake when there's other options available on the market already?"

"Fair point," Hermione said, before she sighed and turned back to look at Daniel. "Come on, Harry; we need to focus if we're going to solve this."

Daniel didn't need his full wits about them to know that his old friend was right; if they couldn't find anything before they fell asleep, this whole trip would have been pointless…

* * *

  
As research continued, Daniel wondered what was worse; the seemingly harmless nature of the 'disease', or the fact that the means of escaping it was so easy and yet so hard to achieve. Without access to more detailed medical resources than what they had already, the team were downing Pepper-Up potions and coffee along with various other wake-up drugs, but there was still only so much that they could accomplish working like this.

 _God_ … he hadn't been this exhausted since he was trying to prepare for the second task in his fourth year; he'd been focused on his studies in college, trying to build up his real knowledge as opposed to the knowledge he'd received in the download before he left Britain, but he'd always been able to fall asleep even if he hadn't always realised how tired he was until he fell asleep over his books. Sam and Hermione had speculated that the infection made them more fatigued than they would have been under normal circumstances, noting that they had stayed awake this long in the past with less effects, but all Daniel cared about right now was staying awake; the infection was only important to the extent that it made it harder for them to do so.

Despite their best efforts, they were no further along in finding a clue about how to cure this contagion, or even anything that would make this trip worthwhile for their larger mission; he'd spotted a couple of promising references to other locations, but nothing that _he_ could use right here and now.

With magic eliminated as a cause for the sickness, they had managed to determine that Ackerman's brain was producing a large amount of melatonin to keep him asleep, but that didn't explain why it was doing that. The discovery of a reference in the town records to the belief that Morgan Le Fay had cursed the village at least gave them somewhere else to check, but while Mitchell, Teal'c, Lupin and Tonks's investigation had confirmed the presence of some kind of parasite in the soil that seemed to be the cause of the sleeping sickness, they were still fighting to stay awake, and Sam was out there searching for a missing man- he couldn't even remember the guy's name- with Fred and George, Doctor Reimer carrying out an autopsy on the recently-deceased Ackerman, while he fought to keep his eyes open as he and Hermione continued their research…

"Anything?" he asked, looking up as Doctor Reimer walked into the library; this book wasn't getting him anywhere anyway…

"There appeared to be a larger version of the parasite that the others found earlier, located in the pineal gland," Reimer said. "It caused a ruptured aneurysm as it grew, and…"

"And that killed him?" Hermione finished, before looking grimly at Daniel. "Well, _that's_ not going to be pleasant…"

"It's _not_ going to happen," Daniel said firmly. "We can do this; just keep reading, and we'll find _something_ …"

"Anything you can find might help," Reimer said, looking grimly at the two researchers. "So far all I've managed to find is that this parasite feeds on the melatonin that makes us want to sleep until it triggers the aneurysm, but that doesn't help us work out how to stop it…"

"And there's no point asking us about that," Hermione said with a sigh. "Most of our medical spells and potions focused on treating more obvious illnesses, so we don't really know much about how the body works on the cellular level; there comes a point where magic can't affect anything _too_ small…"

"How's Sam?" Daniel asked, looking back at the doctor, trying to make his mind focus on something else.

"Grabbing a drink of those Pepper… things of yours," the doctor said. "We used up our immediate supplies to keep us focused enough not to damage anything…"

"Good," Daniel said, not trusting himself to say anything more; things with Sam would always be complicated, but as long as she was safe, he could live with that…

God, why was he thinking about that _now_ …?

"We've got it!" Mitchell's voice suddenly broke into Daniel's thoughts, the archaeologist looking up to see the lieutenant colonel standing in the door with Teal'c, Lupin and Tonks, grinning broadly.

"Got what?" Hermione asked, only able to display a shockingly limited amount of interest compared to what she usually expressed.

"This!" Mitchell said, holding up a strange lizard creature in a cage that looked like it had been conjured by one of the wizards.

"What?" Hermione said, looking at the lizard in confusion for a moment before her eyes widened as she saw it moving around. "Wait a minute; if that thing's from this planet and it's still _awake_ -!"

"Exactly," Mitchell said with a relieved smile. "If it's awake, we might be able to use the thing to reverse an antidote; we get that cracked, we can head off home and sleep until Tuesday. Would've been quicker, but there's been a lot to get through; those caves are a real pain to search, you know…"

"And there's the fact that we had to resort to far more than the recommended amount of wakening charms to keep ourselves awake," Tonks added, jerking her head at Teal'c. "I'm just glad that he isn't human; he might not have been completely perky, but he was a lot better than some of us."

"So… we're safe?" Daniel asked, looking around at his friends with the first sense of hope he'd felt since they'd identified this parasite.

"Give us a med-team or two with the right resources, and we will be," Reimer confirmed, looking at the lizard with a hopeful smile despite his previously exhausted appearance.

They weren't out of the woods just yet, but if all went well- and there was no reason to think otherwise-, they were only a few short steps away from being back in the game…


	50. Assault on Langara

Daniel had to admit, after spending the last couple of days fighting to stay awake for fear he'd never wake up, it was a relief to be back at work after a good night's sleep, without any insomnia-related issues to deal with into the bargain; he supposed the fact that they'd never actually fallen asleep helped in that regard, as they hadn't actually experienced what would happen to them if they'd passed out…

"Well, rise and shine," Landry said as he walked into the briefing room, smiling at the combined SG-1/SG-M teams sitting casually around the table. "How are you all feeling?"

"Rested and raring to go, sir," Mitchell said with a smile.

"I assume Dr. Lam got you up to speed?" Landry asked, as he sat down at the table himself.

"Yes, sir," Sam said, nodding in confirmation. "Between the sample they collected from Teal'c and Lupin's team, and the research Doctor Reimer, Minister Granger and I conducted, they were able to produce a serum that effectively isolated the parasite and starved it out."

"Simple, but effective," Hermione said with a smile.

"And I really have to thank you for that," Mitchell said, looking over at her with a warm smile. "If you guys and your magic hadn't been there, we'd probably have been hanging around there until we were hallucinating from sleep deprivation until we managed to catch that thing, assuming we ever even saw it…"

He sighed in frustration. "Still, probably wouldn't have made much difference in the end; the cave was a dead end. We went through all that for nothing…"

"Actually, I wouldn't say that just yet," Daniel said, looking reassuringly at the rest of the team. "I did find one reference in the library that might be useful; Atlantis."

"Atlantis?" Hagrid said, looking at Daniel in surprise. "Ye mean… the alien city yeh tol' us abou'?"

"Exactly," Daniel said, nodding at the gamekeeper. "It might have a history in our world, but I'm guessing that was just a new city they built in homage of the original; the original Atlantis is thousands of years old and was relocated to another galaxy centuries ago."

"You think the location of Merlin's weapon is hidden in the Atlantis database?" Sam asked.

"I think it's worth checking out," Daniel said, before he looked over at Hermione with a smile. "And you're welcome to come along, naturally."

"To _Atlantis_?" Hermione said, looking eagerly at Daniel. "You're _serious_?"

"Well, we've only found out so much about what's in their databanks after over two years of research, but given what you've found in the past-" Daniel began, only for further conversation to be cut short as the Stargate suddenly began to dial, followed by the familiar alarms indicating an unscheduled offworld activation.

"What?" Hermione said, looking anxiously at the Stargate through the observation window as the chevrons began to light up, thoughts of Atlantis forgotten. "What's going on?"

"I don't know; nobody's scheduled to be checking in any time soon…" Landry said, turning to look solemnly at the Stargate as it finished dialling and the familiar 'kawoosh' emerged from the new wormhole. As the iris closed in front of the wormhole, the two teams followed General Landry down to the control room, where Sergeant Harriman was anxiously examining a panel in front of him.

"What is it, Sergeant?" Landry said, looking firmly at the man sitting at the dialling computer.

"It… well, from what I can tell, it's a call for help from Langara," Harriman said, looking back at the rest of the team.

"Langara?" Daniel and Sam said simultaneously, looking anxiously at each other.

"Is it a Prior?" Mitchell asked, ignoring the puzzled stares being exchanged by SG-M; Langara was one topic they hadn't really discussed in detail, considering how complicated it had been for Daniel in particular, but they could worry about getting everyone up-to-date once they'd established the current threat.

"Worse," Harriman said, his expression grim as he turned to look at them. "The message is only text- it sounds like they don't want to waste time setting up a video connection-, but they're describing a large number of figures in black robes carrying small sticks that shot off a variety of energy bursts with varying effects."

"Oh, _shit_ …" Daniel said, his usual linguistic knowledge virtually forgotten as he looked anxiously over at Sam and Teal'c. "The Death Eaters are on Langara…"

"But how could they know about it?" Sam asked, looking in confusion at the archaeologist. "They don't exactly advertise the presence of naquadria, and we haven't told-"

"Voldemort," Daniel groaned, slapping his head in frustration.

"Voldemort?" Tonks repeated, looking at Harry in confusion. "What-?"

"When I linked with him to try and find out how he'd come back to life, he must have managed to access some of _my_ memories," Daniel explained, his expression grim as he looked at the Stargate. "I was trying to focus on getting into his mind, so I might have let down my own mental barriers long enough for him to take a look at my mind; Langara's not exactly something I can easily forget, so it wouldn't have been hard for him to find it."

"We do not need to assume that you are responsible, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said, looking pointedly at his friend. "There are other explanations for Voldemort's discovery of the value of Langara; we cannot forget that Ba'al was also aware that there was something of interest about that planet, and we have no definitive information regarding the extent of his knowledge, to say nothing of the possibility that he and Voldemort have made contact."

"Ba'al?" Fred said, looking at Teal'c in surprise. "Uh… didn't we kill him already?"

"We have killed two Ba'als since you joined us, but he has created many clones of himself; it is possible that Voldemort captured one of these clones and was able to interrogate him for information," Teal'c corrected the younger wizard.

"Clones?" Hermione said, looking at Teal'c in surprise. "He _cloned_ himself?"

"Man's got a big ego and limited options since the System Lords collapsed; we're thinking he created the clones so that he'd have a security measure to carry out as many plans as he wants without having to worry about actually being in danger himself," Mitchell explained.

"Uh… what are 'clones', exactly?" Tonks asked.

"Essentially, an exact duplicate of another being, with all of their memories and mannerisms," Hermione explained, looking over at the metamorphagus. "Muggle science has been working on various cloning experiments, but we've only managed to clone a sheep so far; I'm guessing that alien technology has… gone a bit further?"

"We know an entire race who've survived this long by constantly cloning themselves; transfer their minds into new bodies when they're about to die, things like that," Mitchell confirmed. "Ba'al's not gone that far yet- we're pretty sure each clone's basically independent, even if they seem to follow the original's cue-, but the point still stands."

"Damn…" Fred said, looking over at George. "Making more of yourself… Now _that_ is weird…"

"We can discuss the cloning thing later; right now, what's interesting about this… Langara that would make the Death Eaters want it?" Hermione asked, even as the curious expression on her face as she looked at Daniel made it clear that she'd have further questions for him later.

"Naquadria," Sam said grimly.

"What's that?" Lupin asked, looking curiously at the astrophysicist.

"Essentially, a more powerful but more unstable form of the naquadah we've more traditionally used as a power source," Sam replied. "It has far more potential power than naquadah, but we've never been able to find a way to use that power safely due to its inability to be safely channelled; it was created by a Goa'uld experiment years ago and the Goa'uld that created it actually blew himself up and nearly destroyed the planet when he attempted it on a large scale, and we've obviously never felt comfortable trying to make it ourselves. We've used it to some degree in some of our prototype generators, and it has some potential as a weapon power source, but the dangers of harvesting it have limited how much we can do."

"So… you're thinking Voldemort wants Langara for this… naquadria stuff?" Fred asked.

"Considering our previous observations on naquadah-magic interaction, that's certainly possible," Sam said. "After all, it _is_ more powerful than naquadah; maybe if he could figure out the right way to use it-"

"Or at least what he _believes_ to be the right way to harness it," Daniel pointed out; Voldemort might be intelligent even without the Goa'uld, but Dumbledore had made the point that there were things Voldemort would never understand often enough, even if this wasn't quite the same as the previously-listed points.

"True," Sam said, nodding in acknowledgement of Daniel's point before she continued. "The point is, if Voldemort can channel work out a means of channelling naquadria's energy through his own magic, he could increase his abilities to a power where it would be virtually impossible to stop him, to say nothing of what he could do if he shared that power with the other Death Eaters…"

"How likely is that?" Hermione asked. "I mean, if you've been working on naquadria for a while and been unable to crack how to use it safely when you _know_ what you're working with-"

"We don't know enough about the genetic memory of Voldemort's Goa'uld to know what it might be capable of, to say nothing of how little we know about Hestia's available Goa'uld," Sam pointed out. "The Goa'uld might be parasites, but they're still not completely stupid; if there's any chance that Voldemort has access to the knowledge he'd need to utilise naquadria, we have to stop it."

"Agreed," Landry said grimly, nodding at his two teams. "SG-1, SG-M, suit up and prepare for departure; you have a go as soon as you've got everything together."

"Good," Daniel said, nodding grimly at the general before he looked over at Harriman. "Tell Langara we're on our way; we'll be there as soon as we can."

* * *

  
Even with magic on their side, Mitchell was impressed at how little time it took him and the rest of their team to get everything together in preparation for their trip to Langara. It seemed like only a couple of minutes had passed before the team were hurrying into the gateroom, those who could find appropriately-sized uniforms dressed in black combat fatigues while Hagrid was wearing his usual attire and carrying two staff weapons in his hands (Mitchell couldn't recall how the guy had done with those during practise, but they weren't exactly useless as close-quarter weapons either).

"All right," he said, walking up to the ramp as Harriman dialled the Stargate, looking around at his expanded team. "We all know what we're up against by now, and we know that they've had time to dig themselves in; best thing for us to do right now is get in there and get these guys out of the picture before anything else goes done."

"In other words, hit them until they stay down," Tonks said, grinning in satisfaction. "Sounds good to me."

"Remember," Daniel said, looking over at the rest of the team with a firm stare, "whatever else happens, Voldemort is _mine_."

"You wish to finish what you failed to complete previously?" Teal'c asked, looking curiously at Daniel.

"Let's just say that, even if I'm not sure about the original prophecy, I'd prefer to be safe rather than sorry," Daniel said grimly, before he turned back to the still-dialling Stargate, a cold glare in his eyes that none of the rest of the team liked much.

Regardless of how long their experience was with Harry or Daniel, everyone present knew one thing for certain; when he looked like that, so cold and intense, something bad was going to happen.

As the Stargate activated, the two teams only waited a moment for General Landry to confirm that they had a go before walking through the wormhole in front of them…

* * *

  
Emerging at the other end in a large room with the Stargate at one end and the DHD close by it, but otherwise indistinguishable from a number of warehouses that they'd encountered over the years.

"Where is this?" Fred asked, looking at their surroundings with a sullen expression.

"The Langaran 'gate room," Sam replied, glancing back at the wizards before she turned her attention back to the room before them; she hadn't been here for a while, but she had to acknowledge that the current warehouse was an improvement over the museum archive that the Langaran Stargate had been kept in previously. The facility was still more basic in design than the SGC's own gateroom- unlike Earth, Langara was too busy focusing on improving its own unstable social structure to have a full Stargate program of its own-, but it was at least devoted exclusively to the Stargate, as well as possessing some some thick-looking doors covering the only visible exit, even if they had been blown off their hinges by some force that Sam didn't want to think about. The damage around the room supported the idea that some kind of fight had taken place here recently, such as chunks blasted out of the walls and a few bodies lying on the ground, but there was nothing to suggest that anyone had stayed around afterwards; they might be cloaked, but Sam was going to assume that the Death Eaters had simply been too arrogant to assume they might be followed.

"Damn…" Mitchell said, looking grimly at the damage around them before looking over at the wizards. "Standard Death Eater practise?"

"Make a lot of noise and do a lot of damage as soon as they arrive on the scene?" Lupin said grimly. "It's fairly standard, yes."

"And they stayed _secret_ operating like this?" Sam asked, looking at the wizards in surprise. "I mean, I know you covered up your presence, but something like this-"

"They generally focused this kind of attack on wizard-only areas- they preferred to establish themselves before going after the muggles-, and even occasions where they went after wizards who lived in muggle areas focused on just attacking them inside the house; there was never a reason to worry about a large-scale cover-up," Tonks explained, even as the wizards moved into a defensive position around SG-1, wands raised in preparation for whatever might come at them next. "OK, everyone; keep an eye out and be ready to take action if you see anything that even _hints_ there's a Death Eater out there-!"

"Within reason, of course; no point taking out our allies because we were too quick on the draw," Mitchell pointed out, before glancing over at Daniel. "Should we have you take point, or keep you back?"

"Just one of the group at the moment," Daniel said. "We've already dealt with most of the Death Eaters I knew personally, so hopefully the changes will be enough to keep my identity quiet until we're ready; if we can take Voldemort by surprise, we might be able to end this once and for all."

The fact that Daniel Jackson was so willing to kill might have been disturbing under other circumstances- the guy was practically the Jiminy Cricket of the program, after all-, but after everything he'd heard about the guy they were dealing with and what he'd done to Jackson's life, Mitchell definitely wasn't going to blame him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To anyone wondering, I'm assuming that the Langaran Stargate facility we saw in 'Stargate: Universe' was designed after the Ori were defeated while the Langarans were rebuilding after the war; since Langara hasn't even been attacked by the Ori yet, they have no reason to have constructed it yet, and are probably relying on the lack of knowledge of naquadria to deter unwanted visitors, even if the current peace allowed them to move the Stargate somewhere more secure.


	51. Death Eaters on Langara

The sight of Langara in such a state as he walked out of the Stargate facility and into the outside world made Daniel shudder. Realistically, he knew that it wasn't as bad as it could have been- if that naquadria bomb he'd sacrificed himself to stop had gone off, that would have caused devastation on a scale he hated to imagine-, but seeing all these shattered windows and damaged buildings just made him remember the kind of damage that the Death Eaters had inflicted the last time they'd been active.

"How long have those assholes _been_ here?" Mitchell said, looking grimly around the street of damaged buildings, clearly wondering how much time it would take to cause this kind of damage.

"Probably not that long," Tonks said grimly. "They didn't attack the muggles much during the war- a few raids, but they didn't want to cause too much damage in case it drew too much attention to our world before they were ready-, but they weren't exactly afraid to cause damage when it came to attacking wizarding locations to make a point…"

"Best of both worlds for these bastards, really," George said, his tone uncharacteristically grim. "Maximum opportunity to inflict damage and nobody around with a real chance of stopping them."

Mitchell might have thought about objecting to that particular statement, but with everything he'd seen SG-M and Jackson accomplish since he'd learned the truth about his teammate's past, he had to admit that he got their point; if they'd gone into action against the Death Eaters without any knowledge of magic, they'd have been in trouble.

"OK," he said, trying to bring the situation under some form of control, "we've got to assume that Voldemort's here because he tapped into Jackson's knowledge of this planet, which means he'll be going somewhere Jackson will think would be helpful to him; where should we start?"

"Jonas Quinn's lab," Daniel said firmly.

"His lab?" Lupin repeated, looking at Daniel curiously. "I thought you told me he was a delegate for his planet's government these days?"

"He's officially the Kelownan delegate to the Joint Ruling Council they established to avert future war after Anubis invaded, but he's continued his research into naquadria at the same time," Daniel explained. "If anyone on the planet still has access to a sample of naquadria, it's Jonas."

"You really think he'd continue studying it?" Sam asked in surprise. "He knows how dangerous it is more than anyone-"

" _I_ don't think he'd keep looking over it, but Voldemort wouldn't be able to conceive of the idea that he'd abandon that kind of research," Daniel clarified. "His entire philosophy is based on the power of blood purity and holding on to that power once you've got it; I don't think he could ever even imagine that someone with access to a power source like naquadria would totally abandon his research into it, even if it was dangerous."

"You have a… unique insight into his thought process, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said, looking curiously at the archaeologist.

"I had him trying to access my mind for a fair portion of my life; add in Dumbledore's lessons about his background, and I think it's safe to say I know him as well as anyone who doesn't serve him could," Daniel said, his tone increasingly grim as he reflected on that past experience.

"Well… it's not like you ever went as far as he did," Sam said, looking reassuringly at Daniel. "With direct access to what he was thinking, nobody could have blamed you for going along with his rhetoric; the fact is that you're still _you_."

"Yeah, Dumbledore always said that my ability to love was what gave me that strength; I could see everything he'd done and knew how he thought, maybe even understood how he felt, but I'd _never_ be able to go along with it," Daniel said, looking around at the battered streets for a moment before he sighed in resignation. "When it came to fighting Voldemort, I just focused on the fact that he had to be stopped rather than think too much about why it had to be me; Dumbledore helped me accept that I'd want to stop him without the prophecy, but Voldemort's fixation with it just made it certain that I'd have to be the one to stop him."

"You recognised the evil that had to be fought and resolved to fight it, Daniel Jackson; that is to be commended regardless of your motives," Teal'c said, nodding in acknowledgement at his friend.

"It would have been more commendable if I'd _stopped_ him…" Daniel said, shaking his head grimly.

"We've got a chance to do that now," Sam said, looking over to give Daniel's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "You couldn't have known that he'd created another… horcrux… to keep himself alive, Daniel; you used what you knew, and nobody's at fault because that wasn't everything."

As he looked at her, Daniel gave her a brief, grateful smile, before his eyes narrowed as he turned his attention back to the more immediate matter.

"Come on," he said, looking around himself for a moment before his eyes fell on a street name. "If I remember correctly, Jonas's lab should be this way…"

* * *

  
Jonas had encountered some twisted things during his year of service with the SGC, ranging from Nirrti's hok'taur experiments to Anubis himself, but somehow the being standing in his lab right now went far beyond any of that, even with his associates alternating between asking for a shot and encouraging him to continue. It wasn't that he was particularly physically repulsive- the snake-like nose and pale skin aside, he was actually relatively human in appearance-, but the being was demonstrating a sadistic nature that at least matched some of the Goa'uld he'd encountered, if it didn't surpass them completely; Nirrti and Anubis had used him for their own ends, but they'd never seemed to delight in causing pain like this guy was.

The worst part was that the bastard didn't even seem to believe his protests that he had no idea what he was talking about; every time Jonas tried to say that he hadn't kept any naquadria in his lab since his last meeting with SG-1, he'd just been informed that he shouldn't lie and been subjected to another intense burst of pain.

" _Where is it_?" the snake-thing said, glaring angrily at Jonas.

"I don't _have_ any-" Jonas began again, only for something to strike him in the side with a painful stinging sensation.

"Do _not_ lie to Lord Voldemort, muggle!" the attacker said, glaring at Jonas. "You spent years studying a power source greater than any he has heard of; you would not-"

"It's too dangerous; if you know anything about naquadria, you _have_ to know that!" Jonas protested. "We nearly destroyed this planet trying to use it as a weapon; I wouldn't-"

"You would _not_ abandon such power!" the thing with the strange nose said, glaring arrogantly at Jonas. "Tell me where-!"

The sound of the door breaking down distracted his attackers from what they were doing, prompting everyone to turn in the direction of the door as SG-1 entered the lab, along with five other people that Jonas didn't recognise from the occasional updates sent to Langara by the SGC, the new arrivals and Daniel Jackson wielding strange sticks similar to that used by his torturers while the other three held their more familiar weapons.

"Hello, Tom," Daniel said, glaring at the snake-faced man.

"Tom?" Jonas said, looking at his former torturer in confusion; the idea of someone called Tom looking like that just felt strange to him, even considering his experience with Earth had been enough to inform him that quite a few people had that name, given how bizarre the being looked.

"He renamed himself; it's a whole complicated thing," Daniel said, his gaze fixed on the other man as Jonas's former torturers spread out to face the new arrivals. "Look, Tom, you can do this as often as you like, but the fact is that Jonas isn't going to give you anything because he doesn't _have_ anything to give you, so you might as well just give up now and let us get on with this."

"You still wish to fight me?" the man that was apparently called Tom said, looking scathingly at Daniel. "You were barely my match when I was but a skilled wizard-"

"And now you're a snake that's hi-jacked someone else's body because you lost your own for a second time," Daniel interjected. "You're not a god, Tom Riddle; you're a fool who can't accept failure."

"I have survived and evolved beyond death itself, Potter-" 'Tom' began again, his voice changing into the dual-toned voice that Jonas had heard from various Goa'uld in his year on SG-1.

"You lucked out and hitched a lift in a Goa'uld when your body died, Voldy; that's not surviving death, that's just a fluke," the man that Jonas assumed was Colonel Cameron Mitchell said, aiming his gun at his adversary. "Now then, are you going to be a good psycho and stand down, or does this get ugly?"

"My lord!" another man in a black robe yelled as he hurried into the room, holding up a piece of paper in one hand that Jonas recognised as one of his old maps of naquadria deposits. "This map reveals the location of a deposit of a significant amount of the mineral!"

SG-1 didn't even have time to react to the other man's arrival before the snake-thing called Tom seemed to pull the map towards him- it flew through the air when he pointed his stick at it; there was definitely some connection there- and vanished, the other figures in black quickly following after their master.

" _Damn it_!" Daniel yelled, closing his eyes for a moment before he… _vanished_ just like the figures in black had, followed by two of the unfamiliar figures, leaving Colonel Mitchell, Sam, Teal'c, a woman with thick brown hair, and two men who looked virtually identical to each other.

"What…" Jonas began, as the unfamiliar woman crouched down beside him and briefly pointed her stick at him before raising it without any of the pain he'd experienced after similar experiences earlier.

"You'll be fine," the woman said, smiling reassuringly at him. "You've taken a few unpleasant curses, but there's nothing there that you won't recover from with a bit of time and rest; things could have been worse."

"Curses?" Jonas repeated, looking at the new arrivals in confusion. "What are you… talking about?"

"It's… complicated," Sam said, smiling apologetically at Jonas. "The essential details are that an old enemy of Daniel's from his past has come back and managed to gain access to the Stargate, and is using it to try and gain access to a new source of power; they think that they can use naquadria to enhance their pre-existing abilities."

"Enhance?" Jonas repeated, his mind going back over what he'd just experienced. "You mean… they could do _that_ … and they want to become _better_ at it?"

"Unfortunately, torturing people like that is one of the more basic things they can do; it's just that it's one of their favourite strategies in a fight," the unfamiliar woman said grimly, before she smiled politely at him. "By the way, sorry I didn't do this earlier; I'm Hermione Granger, and this is Fred and George Weasley; we… went to school with… Daniel."

The way she'd phrased that statement suggested to Jonas that there was more to the story than the idea that they were old schoolfriends of Daniel, but this wasn't time to think about that; if these people were after naquadria-

"He's gone," Daniel said, looking grimly at the rest of the team as he reappeared in the room, looking around himself as the other two strangers appeared on either side of him; it didn't resemble any form of teleportation Jonas had seen during his year in the SGC, but there were other matters to be concerned about right now than what new resources they'd picked up since he worked with them. "I tried to catch up, but he was moving too fast; wherever he is now, he's out of range."

"Damnit…" one of the twins said, looking up at the ceiling in frustration.

"Look…" Jonas asked, sitting up from the floor and looking at his old teammates in confusion. "I know that I've been away from SG-1 for a while, but… what happened?"

"Long story short, some old enemies of mine found out about the Stargate and are trying to use it to increase their own power," Daniel explained, before looking more pointedly at Jonas; under other circumstances, Jonas might have asked why Daniel was moving on from something that significant so quickly, but this wasn't time to think about that. "So… what were you doing with a map showing the location of a naquadria deposit?"

"We're still working out the best solution for dealing with the remaining naquadria available from the surface," Jonas explained. "We've cordoned the old mining facilities off and restricted access, but we still need to ensure that nobody's going to get lucky while on an archaeological dig or something like that; someone has to keep track of where everything is so that it isn't discovered by accident."

"Makes sense," the short woman with hair in a bizarre shade of pink said. "From what they've told us, we're talking about something that nearly blew up your planet; you don't leave that kind of thing lying around without anyone keeping an eye on it."

"Where is the naquadria?" Teal'c asked.

"The primary deposit is still located around where we undertook our drilling operation the last time I asked you for help," Jonas replied.

"Right," Daniel said, nodding at Jonas before he looked over at Sam. "From what we've seen of naquadah's interaction with magic, could the Death Eaters mine naquadria with their magic without triggering some kind of chain reaction?"

"If they're careful… it could work," Sam said after a moment's thought, looking contemplatively at the sticks Daniel and the new arrivals were holding. "Naquadah enhances magic in the right circumstances, but it only absorbs the effects of certain spells; if they only channel a certain amount of energy into each spell, assuming the mutation didn't have too significant an effect on that aspect of the naquadria, they could cut off chunks of it without risking any side-effects…"

"And with all of them working on it at once, if all goes well, it won't take long for them to have a decent portion of naquadria for them to work with," Daniel said, his expression becoming increasingly grim at the thought.

"Uh… I thought you said exposure to naquadria was… dangerous?" Fred asked, looking over at the others. "Couldn't we just-?"

"Firstly, naquadria in its natural state only generates a small amount of radiation; the Death Eaters would need to be exposed to it for some time before they'd start showing any side-effects, and I think we can all agree that we don't want to give them that long in case they learn how to harness it safely," Sam pointed out. "Secondly, based on past study of naquadria, I think that it might actually be better equipped to absorb magic than naquadah; if we have to go in, it should be safe to use magic to try and subdue them, and the sooner we can catch them off-guard the better."

"In other words, we can fight them without worrying about getting blown up by accident?" George said, grinning in satisfaction. "Good to know."

" _Probably_ ," Sam said, looking pointedly at Mitchell. "I'd still encourage caution, considering the risks of our current situation; I may be making an educated guess, but it's still a guess."

"Let's move before they go anywhere else," Daniel said, looking grimly at his friends as he took Sam's hand, followed by the scruffy-looking over man placing a hand on Teal'c's shoulder while the twins took hold of Mitchell and Jonas's arms. For a moment, Jonas wondered what was about to happen, but then he had the sudden sensation of being forced down a small straw really quickly before he found himself standing in the middle of a field that he recognised as being a short distance away from the naquadria deposit, the mining building they'd established over the vein a short walk away.

"What-?" he began, looking over at Daniel in confusion, before a sudden explosion from near the building sent a burst of rubble and earth up from the ground, forcing the group to either dive to the ground or grab the person nearest to them to drag them to safety. As Daniel and the others got back to their feet, he looked up just in time to see a large ha'tak flying down towards the building, taking up position above it and sending down a ring platform, the return signal being sent back up almost a few seconds later as the ha'tak began to depart.

"NO!" Daniel yelled, staring up at the ship as it vanished into the air, leaving the expanded SG-1 staring after it in shock out of a lack of anything else to do; apparition after a moving target would have been dangerous even if the upward motion of the ship wasn't a factor to take into account.

"Do you think-?" Sam began.

"He got enough of what he was after," Daniel said firmly. "Voldemort would only run if he was certain he had what he wanted or there was no way for him to get it; with the numbers he had here, he could have held us off if he wanted to, so he's only leaving because he doesn't see the point in staying."

"He found it that easily?" Jonas said, looking at Daniel in confusion. "If it was that easy for that… that guy to find the naquadria, why did he spend so much time just… torturing me? I mean, the safe was locked, but it doesn't look like that was much of a problem for them…"

"He thought you might tell him more than if he just did his research, and he's a lazy bastard who thinks everyone's out for power; he just finds it easier to resort to torture as the first option to get answers rather than take the time to see what people actually know," Daniel explained, shrugging slightly at Jonas's stare. "He's twisted, but he's not that complicated when he's attacking you directly."

"So, with that in mind, where do you think he's going now?" Mitchell asked, looking curiously at his team's archaeologist.

"Where else?" Daniel said, looking grimly at the sky. "Now that he's got the additional power, he's going to go back to reclaim the one place that he ever thought of as a home."

"Hogwarts?" Hermione said, looking apprehensively at Daniel.

"Hogwarts," Daniel confirmed with a grim nod.

Despite everything that had happened to lead him to this point, Daniel had to allow himself a slight smile at the thought of what he'd just said.

To find Voldemort, they were going to go back to Hogwarts…


	52. Return to Hogwarts

After getting back to Earth, everything was almost a blur to Daniel. With everything he'd seen since the Death Eaters attacked the SGC, it didn't take General Landry long to give the two teams permission to leave the facility and travel to Hogwarts, Sam, Mitchell and Teal'c being subjected to a few quick charms to render them immune to the school's usual anti-muggle defences as they changed into more casual attire for the journey before they found themselves being apparated away from the facility.

As they reappeared on the outskirts of Hogsmeade- they wouldn't even have been able to get in that close if it hadn't been for Hermione's authority as Minister; Hogwarts security had been improved after the events of Harry's time at school-, Daniel looked over at his current teammates, smiling as he saw the moment when the initial illusions faltered and his new friends saw where he had spent his formative years.

"Holy Hannah…" Sam said, her eyes wide as she took in Hogwarts off in the distance, the village of Hogsmeade spread out between their current location and the school. "That's just… I mean…"

"Indeed," Teal'c said, nodding in approval at the size of the castle. "It is a formidable structure; it will serve our purposes well."

"Assuming the guy we're here to stop doesn't just blow it up…" George said grimly.

"He won't," Daniel said firmly, feeling more like Harry Potter in that moment than he had felt even amid the chaos of the last few days. "He wants Hogwarts to survive as the home it always was to him; with Dumbledore gone and me dismissed as a threat to his elevated state, he's not going to do that unless he has to."

"Uh… question?" Fred asked. "We know he's coming, and we're pretty sure we know where he'll be going; couldn't we just… get one of your spaceships in position and shoot that thing down when it comes in too close?"

"Unfortunately, while that would be simpler, we have to consider collateral damage and the risks of exposure," Sam said, looking apologetically at the Weasley twin.

"Exposure?" Fred repeated.

"I _think_ we can assume that blowing up an alien spaceship near Earth wouldn't do their attempts to keep the Stargate program secret much good," Hermione pointed out, looking at Fred with a firm stare.

"Indeed," Teal'c said. "We were able to attribute the destruction of the Goa'uld ships used in their first thwarted invasion as a near-asteroid impact that destroyed itself, but that can only be used so many times, and should not be relied on."

"Besides," Sam continued grimly, "we have to take the cargo into account."

"The naquadria?" Mitchell asked, distracted from the immediate shock of seeing Hogwarts by this new information. "What's that have to do with anything?"

"Naquadria's unstable to use at the best of times," Sam explained as she turned to look at her team commander, appearing relieved at the chance to think about something she could more easily understand than the magic they were currently relying on. "The consequences of blowing up a ship carrying it would be dangerous enough under normal circumstances, but if Voldemort managed to figure out how to use naquadria to power his ship, we could trigger… well, if we blow it up when its power is being actively channelled, let's just say losing Hogwarts would be the least of our worries."

"In other words, all we can do is stick to the plan and hope the other guy's reasonably sane?" Mitchell said, swallowing slightly as he looked at the school. "Well, if worse comes to worse, at least we've got a load of wizards available…"

"They're not exactly fully qualified-" Tonks began.

"Neither were we, most of the time," Hermione pointed out, indicating herself and Daniel with a smile as she looked at the auror. "They might not be qualified, but they're not exactly helpless either; they just need the right incentive."

"But we're not putting them on the front lines unless we have to," Daniel said, looking firmly at Hermione.

"Harry-" his old friend began, looking pointedly at him.

"Hermione, half the time we got through everything we had to deal with because we either got lucky or nobody was expecting us to try something like that; we were unusual students even before I did all that additional training for the Tournament," Daniel said, his gaze still firm as he looked back at her; maybe he was being slightly hypocritical after everything they'd done with Ron as students, but the circumstances were still different. "Those students in there have never had to deal with the kind of thing we've had to deal with when we were at Hogwarts, and I'm not going to change that now unless I have to."

After a moment's silence, Hermione nodded at him in grim understanding.

"Well…" Lupin said, indicating the path that would lead to Hogwarts with an awkward shrug, clearly discomfited at the reminder of what was about to happen. "Let's go."

The subsequent walk through the village was relatively straightforward- the sight of so many unknown adults in Hogwarts attracted some attention, but it wasn't anything to be particularly worried about-, which was one thing Daniel was glad about; evidently, without his scar, he wasn't immediately identifiable.

As he reached the path leading up to the school, he paused for a moment to take in the sight of his old school up close once again; he had so many other memories since he'd been a student here, but, no matter what he experienced in reality or artificial memory, the school was the first place he'd ever really felt like he was somewhere he belonged…

"Daniel?" Sam said, looking curiously at him. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," he said, smiling at her before he looked back at the school. "It's just… it's like coming home after years away, you know?"

"Good memories?" Sam asked.

"More than the bad ones, anyway," Daniel said, staring thoughtfully at Hogwarts for a moment before he continued walking towards the school. After a few moments of silent progress, the group finally came to the main doors of the school, the rest of the team stepping aside to allow Daniel to open the doors before him. As he walked into the main hall, Daniel tried not to smile too much at the sight of the assembled students looking at him in confusion; in a strange way, after all the times he'd attracted stares just by being who he was at Hogwarts, he'd almost missed it when he moved into the muggle world full time.

"Miss- Minister Granger?" Professor McGonagall said, looking sharply at Hermione as the group walked up to the staff table (Harry noted a few familiar and unfamiliar faces mixed together, including Neville sitting where Professor Sprout had once been, but this wasn't time to mourn how Hogwarts had changed since his time there). "This is-"

"Irregular, I know," Hermione said, smiling apologetically at her old teacher. "However, I think you'll agree when you hear my reasons for coming here that this is a highly irregular situation, and you have to know that I would never have done something like this if I wasn't sure that I had to."

"What reasons would those be, precisely?" McGonagall asked, her expression becoming more inquiring as she looked at Hermione.

"Like my return," Daniel said, stepping forward and smiling slightly at the older woman. "Hello, Professor McGonagall."

"Who are…?" his former house head began, before she squinted at him for a moment and her eyes widened in recognition. "Harry Potter?"

"In the flesh," Daniel said, smiling back at her before his expression became grim once more. "I just wish it was for a better reason."

"Why?" McGonagall asked, looking at him with an uncertain smile, the surrounding staff joining her in looking at the returned Harry Potter with enthusiastic smiles. "What are you doing here?"

"He's back," Daniel said.

As with his initial reunion with Hermione, that statement was all he needed to inform the assembled teachers why he'd come back here; there was only one 'He' that he could be referring to.

"What?" McGonagall said, her face paling as she looked at her former student in shock, evidently speaking for the rest of her staff. "How-?"

"That's a long story, and we don't know how long we have until he gets here," Daniel said apologetically. "I'd fill you in if we had more time, but right now what I need to know is simple; can you relocate all the younger students to the dungeons for additional protection while we work on preparing the castle defences for a potential aerial assault?"

"Aerial assault?" McGonagall repeated in shock.

"It's a long and complicated story which ties into what I've been doing for the last decade or so," Daniel explained, as he indicated his current teammates. "Professor McGonagall, these are my friends, Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter, Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell, and Teal'c; for the last decade, I've been working as an archaeologist for an American military program that travels to other worlds through an elaborate portal designed by aliens in the distant past, fighting another group of aliens who came to Earth centuries ago and set themselves up in a position of power by posing as gods."

If he'd still been at school, Daniel thought that he would have been slightly amused to see McGonagall so obviously flustered at such a statement, clearly nothing she'd expected to hear, but this wasn't the time to enjoy that surprise.

"So," McGonagall said, standing up to look solemnly at Daniel after taking a moment to recuperate, "you wish for us to get the students to safety?"

"Unless there's another DA active in this year, I think it would be best," Daniel said grimly. "Trust me, Voldemort's learned a few new tricks since he was last here; I'm not going to put anyone in harm's way who hasn't experienced combat unless I absolutely have to."

"From what Jackson's told us, the dungeons should be safe enough-" Mitchell began.

"Jackson?" Flitwick said, looking at the lieutenant colonel curiously.

"That's me," Daniel said, smiling apologetically at the Charms professor. "Doctor Daniel Jackson, Ph.D; as I said, I'm an archaeologist these days, but I changed my name when I relocated."

"Ah," Flitwick said, nodding in understanding. "Well… it's good to know you've made something for yourself, Mr Potter."

"I try," Daniel said with a smile, before he turned to look at the rest of the staff. "And I'd normally be glad for the chance to talk about it, but we don't have the time for that now; we have to get these students to safety."

"Wouldn't evacuating them work-?" McGonagall asked.

"Do you have somewhere you could evacuate them to on where you could guarantee their safety on potentially short notice?" Daniel asked, looking pointedly at the headmistress. "I don't like it either, but Voldemort isn't going to want to explicitly destroy the school, and we don't have time to find somewhere secure enough for them to stay outside of the premises when we don't know when they'll get here; we're going to have to take a chance."

"You… you are certain it's him?" a younger teacher with stained fingers that Daniel guessed was the new Potions teacher said. "I mean, he's been-"

"It's a long and complicated story, but it's him," Daniel said, nodding in confirmation at the teacher. "And I wish I had the chance to tell you more about it, but like I said, we've got a lot to do and Voldemort could be here any minute; we're dealing with so many unknowns that I need to get these kids to safety as soon as possible."

"Very well," McGonagall said after a moment's thought, standing up and facing the students. "Attention students! We have reports of a dangerous assault that is about to be unleashed on our school. Until this situation has been resolved, I must ask that all students please retreat to the dungeons in an orderly manner for their own safety."

Looking at the students gathered around him, Daniel had to admit that these students were a lot more obedient than they had been in his time in Hogwarts; as soon as McGonagall gave the order, the students all immediately got to their feet and began to walk towards the door to the entrance hall, a few of the unfamiliar teachers getting up to show them to the dungeons. He supposed that it came from not having to operate on a war footing with a relatively incompetent government in power; unlike when he was at Hogwarts, these students _knew_ that they could count on their leaders to get the job done, whereas he had never managed to have that kind of faith in the Ministry since learning how they'd made such a mess of Sirius's role in his parents' deaths…

"OK," he said, nodding in approval as the students filed towards the door before he turned to the remaining staff. "Now that they're getting to safety, we need to coordinate our defence; Hermione's going to see who she can contact at the Ministry who can get here in the available time frame, but the rest of us need to work out the most defensible position possible for when he gets here."

"How are we going to do that?" Fred asked. "I mean, we're operating on limited numbers with no idea where he's going to appear-"

"Pick the areas that would be strongest and most vulnerable to an aerial assault and take it from there," Sam said. "If he's attacking with a ship, he'll be relying on his Goa'uld memories to plan the attack rather than his own if he never did something like this on his own, but we can't know if he'll try and trick us by doing what we'd expect him to do or doing what we wouldn't expect of him."

"Uh… right," George said, nodding uncertainly at the lieutenant colonel before he shrugged as he looked at the remaining teachers. "Hey, I just work with her; I can't be expected to understand everything she says, right?"

"You have been… working with these people, Minister?" one of the newer teachers said, looking curiously at Hermione.

"Yes, Professor Braxton, and it's part of a long story that Harry and I will be happy to fill you all in on once we're sure that Hogwarts isn't about to be blasted to bits by an alien spacecraft; please _move_ , will you?" Hermione said, looking impatiently at the new professor as she indicated the doors behind them. "Now, if you could please accompany some of my colleagues to the upper areas of the castle, we need to determine the most likely location for an attack _soon_ , please?"

* * *

  
As he hurried along after the ridiculously short old guy who was showing him and the twins around the school, Mitchell had to admit that he could see how Jackson had become so attached to the place; it was bizarrely complicated to find his way around this place- he was fairly sure they'd doubled back on themselves at least twice- but the building was still fascinating, with a surprisingly comfortable atmosphere on top of an impressive structure…

"So," he said, after a few more minutes of movement came to an end as they reached the top of the school, looking curiously at the short man, "what was Jackson like as a student?"

"Jackson? Oh, you mean Mr Potter?" the short teacher said, smiling over at the lieutenant colonel. "Well, his theory was questionable, but he generally excelled at the practical side of preparing spells; he sometimes forgot some of the definitions of the spells in his exams, but he was such an exceptional natural spellcaster that he managed to teach a few interesting tricks even to students older than him when he was only in fifth year."

"He forget definitions?" Mitchell said, surprised at the idea that Jackson had ever been less than a brilliant academic; he knew that his friend wasn't a scientist, but magic seemed like the kind of thing that would pretty much always be fun to learn…

"Only a few times, and as I said, his practical spellwork was always good enough to make up for it," the old professor said, grinning at Mitchell as they slowed to a more leisurely place, evidently approaching the location that this man had selected as where they should mount their defence.

"He's come a long way since then, I'll give you that," Mitchell said, smiling at the shorter man. "Guy comes up with all kinds of interesting theories about what we're dealing with lately based on a few historical tit-bits that wouldn't have meant much to anyone else, and that's just what I've seen him do in the last couple of years; he's done a lot more over the years."

"It's always good to hear that a student's done well," Flitwick said, grinning at Mitchell before he turned his attention to the view before them. "Now then, this is one of the highest external points in the castle; the highest point is the Headmaster's office, but that's a bit more central, so I assume this would be a better location if we're preparing a potential defence…"

* * *

  
With Lupin and Tonks currently setting up the defensive spells after Teal'c had identified the best area to establish a defensive front, the Jaffa was left with little more to do than watch as his new allies did what they could, alternating between observing their spells and observing the building laid out below them with a thoughtful smile.

Teal'c had little experience with the Tau'ri's educational establishments, but he was fairly certain that the building they were currently preparing to defend was far from normal by any standards. He could understand how it had earned its reputation, of course- a thousand years or so maintaining a continuous presence was an impressive record for most things, and even the oldest Goa'uld had only a few territories that they had controlled for that long before Ra established a status quo- but the complexity of the structure made him wonder how modern students were able to find their way around, to say nothing of what he'd heard about its wider role in this secret world.

He had spent the last few weeks forced to adapt everything he thought he knew about Earth to accommodate the most recent discoveries about what Daniel Jackson and others were capable of, but while he knew that he still had much to learn, he was grateful for the opportunity that this presented him with; even the majority of Earth's inhabitants were ignorant of the wonders it could deliver.

He might resent the fact that circumstances had forced Daniel Jackson to relive such a painful period of his life by coming back here, but as he watched Remus Lupin and his wife prepare the last of the castle's defences, he knew that he would enjoy learning more about this new world when the current crisis had passed. Not only would an alliance between the SGC and the wizarding world be mutually beneficial for all concerned parties, but he had a strong feeling that Daniel Jackson would enjoy the chance to reunite with his old friends…

"That's that," Tonks said, stepping back from setting up the last protective spell in this area. "We've set up everything we can set up; add in Hogwarts' default defences, and we're as ready as we'll ever be… I think."

"How about you?" Lupin asked, looking curiously at Teal'c. "You know what kind of weapons we're up against; is there anything else we can do?"

"I feel that we have prepared for what Lord Voldemort may have to release against us as much as we can," Teal'c said, looking grimly at the werewolf; they had tested Goa'uld weapons against magic as much as they could, but never on this scale. "As for whether it will be enough…"

He didn't bother finishing that statement, knowing that Lupin would understand; as a soldier himself, they both knew that no battle plan could ever survive contact with the enemy, particularly not when dealing with stakes like this in such a complex situation.

They would do their best, and after that it would all come down to what their enemy decided to do in response…

* * *

  
"Well," Professor McGonagall said, looking round the Great Hall as the last of the staff's Patronuses finished delivering the messages that they were all in position, before her gaze fixed on Daniel, "I must say, Potter, your new associates are… most impressive."

"Trust me, you haven't even seen a _fraction_ of what they can do," Daniel said, smiling at her as he avoided the opportunity to correct her on his name; he probably wasn't going to see her after this for a while, so it wasn't worth worrying about something like that. "We've been doing this kind of thing for a while now; we may not have had to coordinate a defensive plan on this scale using magic, but they all know how to defend a location from this kind of aerial assault."

"You became involved in a new war?" McGonagall said, looking at him in surprise. "Minister Granger told us that you left to avoid war-"

"And I tried to stay out of future wars by going into an academic field that I thought would never be of value to anyone, but when I was hired for an assignment that revealed the existence of a race of parasites that use humans like they're nothing while demanding to be worshipped as gods…" Daniel explained, shrugging helplessly as his old Transfiguration teacher looked sceptically at him. "I didn't set out to go to war, but when I was there, I couldn't exactly reject their request when I knew I could do something."

"Always a Gryffindor, mmm?" McGonagall said, smiling at him in a thoughtful manner.

"I did what I could," Daniel replied, smiling back at her before he indicated the door to the Great Hall. "Anyway, we'd better be getting into position; we're not going to be defending anything from inside here."

That statement was slightly inaccurate, but he and McGonagall both knew what he meant; if they could only defend Hogwarts from inside the Great Hall, than the battle had reached a point where it was already far too dangerous for them.

"Can you even be certain we can damage anything?" McGonagall asked, looking uncertainly at Daniel even as she followed him to the door. "I confess that I have little understanding of what you say we are up against, but surely something that can make it to Hogwarts from such a distance-"

"Voldemort will be pushing it to its limits in more ways that he's willing to acknowledge right now, so I'm assuming that his arrogance is going to make him make some mistakes," Daniel explained. "He's acquired some new knowledge since he last attacked, but that doesn't mean he's up-to-date on everything he can do now; I'm hoping that his overconfidence will cause him to make a few important mistakes…"

Further discussion on that topic was ended as the sky above them began to ripple and glow in the manner that Daniel recognised as the sign that a hyperspace window was about to open; it seemed slightly darker than usual, but that could be a side-effect of it opening in atmosphere rather than in space as it usually did.

 _Here we go_ … Daniel thought grimly, his hand reaching into his jacket to pull out his wand as he stared at the source of the distortion.

As a hole suddenly seemed to tear into existence in the skies above Hogwarts, Daniel shuddered at the sight of a ha'tak appearing out of hyperspace inside a planet's atmosphere, the ship taking up position over the school with a foreboding aura greater than any Dementor that had ever been in the area.

Over two decades after he'd thought it was all over, the final battle was about to begin…


	53. The Final Battle of Hogwarts

For a moment, there was nothing but silence as the staff and eldest students of Hogwarts stared up at the Goa'uld ship hovering in the sky above them, the Hogwarts staff simply staring in shock at this thing they had never seen before while the various members of SG-1 and 'SG-M' were suddenly struck with apprehension at the possibility that they'd failed to do everything they could to protect the school.

If there'd been another way, Daniel would have taken it- he'd never wanted to bring this battle to Hogwarts, after everything else it had endured over the centuries even before he arrived there and endured chaos each year- but with all of Earth's ships elsewhere in the galaxy and no way to be sure where Voldemort's ha'tak would emerge, protecting Hogwarts was the first priority; calling in back-up would have taken too long and there had been no guarantees of a response.

The only question now was whether he'd predicted what Voldemort would do correctly…

" _I have returned_ ," the familiar voice said, at a volume that could have been the _Sonorous_ spell or a Goa'uld loudspeaker that they'd never needed to use before. " _I have been away for many years, rediscovering what I am and what I am capable of, but I have now returned to guide you all_."

Daniel wasn't surprised at Voldemort's description of his transformation; only a Goa'uld-level ego combined with Voldemort's own natural arrogance could take the defeat he'd suffered last time and reinvent it to make it sound like he'd let himself lose to become better.

" _Your leaders have fallen further from our former destiny_ ," Voldemort continued, evidently uninterested in anyone trying to respond to him. " _You are controlled by one who does not know our full history, you are encouraged to accept those who have no understanding of tradition, and those who have power are neglected and dismissed in the name of 'reconstruction'_ …"

Daniel briefly registered the sound of footsteps coming from the school doors as the rest of SG-1 and their new magical allies ran up to join him, but even if they hadn't come, he had already decided that they'd heard enough. Clearly, Voldemort's plan was nothing more sophisticated than showing up and shocking the world that had fought against him last time by showing off what he was capable of now, which might have been intimidating if he didn't know about Voldemort's return but as it was just seemed like stupid posturing. Raising his wand, Daniel cast a quick _Sonorous_ charm and looked up at the ha'tak, already confident in what he was about to say.

"Is that the best you can do, _Tom_?" he retorted as he held his wand to his throat, glaring up at the ship containing his old nemesis. "Claim that you were just away resting until you were 'needed' and then go off on your rants about bringing back the 'good old days'?"

" _Ah_ …" Voldemort said after a moment's pause, his tone sounding frustratingly satisfied; only Daniel's experience of Voldemort's inner moments allowed him to pick up on the edge of frustration in his tone. " _Harry Potter… returned as well, I see_?"

"How could I stay away when you were hanging around like the scum you are?" Daniel countered, deciding to draw on his inner Jack for the moment; if he was going to provoke Voldemort into a direct attack, attacking his ego was the best strategy he could think of. "Honestly, you get the chance to see things that so few people can even imagine… and all that you can think to do with that knowledge is come back to the world that already rejected you."

" _I am the Heir of Slytherin, Harry; it is my_ destiny _to rule_ -" Voldemort began.

"But you're not even that any more, _Tom_ ," Daniel said, glaring up at the ship. "Your original body died long ago and your spirit's been corrupted over the years since you started this; all you are is a parasite in another man's body that can't accept when his time's over. Your return was unexpected, but I've been dealing with things like you for almost a decade now, and you still don't really know what you're dealing with these days; is there _any_ chance that we could just call this the end of it and you go off to rule some barren wasteland somewhere else?"

" _No_ ," Voldemort replied firmly.

"Had to try," Daniel said, removing his wand from his throat and cancelling the spell before turning to look at the assembled wizards. "OK, everyone get ready to fire; he's going to take a moment to decide what to do now that he knows I'm here, but once he starts firing, it's him or us."

"If we've got a moment, I have to ask, did he always spend that much time monologuing?" Mitchell asked, looking at Daniel with a slight smile.

"Trust me, he had a Goa'uld-sized ego even _before_ he became a Goa'uld," Daniel said, smiling over at his team leader. "It was his main weakness, really; he passed up his best chance to kill me directly because he wanted to make sure that his followers knew I'd never have beaten him in a direct fight, and in our other confrontations he either wasn't at his peak, had to deal with someone else as well as me, or I just had the element of surprise."

"Mainly because he never expected you to be stupid enough to try and fight him in the first place," Hermione said, even as the teasing grin on her face as she looked at him made it clear that she was joking. Daniel would have replied, but the sound of the ha'tak's weapons preparing to fire immediately gave them all something else to think about, prompting the wizards present to raise their wands and launch their own attack.

The ha'tak's weapons might be more powerful, but the spells were released before it could fire, and it was soon clear that the school's barriers could cope with the assault slightly better than they had anticipated. Evidently, even if Voldemort was using naquadria to enhance his ship, he hadn't found a way to use magic in its weapons; most likely he had either assumed that he wouldn't need to defend against a magical attack or his Goa'uld acquired knowledge didn't extend to how to modify the shields to cope with such an assault. Add in the fact that the ha'tak was an older model with less power than other ships they'd encountered- most likely due to Hestia being fairly isolated by Goa'uld standards- along with Voldemort apparently trying not to cause too much damage to Hogwarts by using too much power, and Daniel had hope that they'd come through this fight more easily than he'd anticipated.

It was just a pity that they weren't delivering that much damage either; their spells were striking the shields, but magical combat had never been intended to go up against something this big…

"How long is this going to take?" Hermione asked, looking anxiously at Daniel as spells continued to fire at the ship, illuminating the shield without actually damaging it. "I mean, isn't there some _limit_ to what they can take?"

"There's no way of knowing how they'll cope with magic; we just have to keep on trying and hope for the best!" Daniel said as their assault continued; he had his doubts, but he really didn't have any better idea.

"We can't just keep firing like this; even if we can damage the ship, the naquadria core could be dangerous!" Sam called over to Daniel.

"How dangerous are we walking here?" Fred asked.

"Daniel Jackson once disabled a naquadria bomb with the potential to blow up a significant portion of the planet that we were currently visiting!" Teal'c replied, looking grimly at the nearest twin.

"Then we need to disable the core before we get to a point where that's an issue…" Daniel said, looking grimly up at the ship for a moment before he came to an impulsive decision. Reaching over, he wrapped an arm around Sam- he was just taking the most expedient route; there was _nothing_ behind this- focused…

* * *

  
Reappearing in the engine room of the Ha'tak, Daniel smiled as he took in the sight of only a few Death Eaters and Jaffa gathered around them; having to kill Jaffa might suck, but if they were still loyal to a Goa'uld this far into the rebellion, they probably wouldn't be swayed from their 'god' anyway. Quickly standing back-to-back with Sam, Daniel launched a series of rapid stunners from his wand while Sam fired her zat, quickly leaving the two of them the only people conscious in the room.

"That was… interesting," Sam said, looking back at him as she lowered her zat.

"I was guessing that Voldemort hadn't gotten around to installing anti-apparation wards on his ship yet; he is _far_ too arrogant for his own good," Daniel said, smiling at his friend before he looked over at the core. "Right now, you just need to disable that thing; if we can take it out, we might have a chance."

"Right," Sam said, turning her attention to the core before her. Quickly checking over the controls, drawing on her years of experience of Goa'uld technology and naquadah research, she adjusted a few switches and removed a few of the more important control crystals before she stepped away.

"Done," she said, looking back at Daniel with a smile. "The ship's backup power core is still in operation, so we won't have to worry about it crashing or anything like that, but I've disabled its connection to the primary naquadria core, so it's operating on a more reasonable power level than it was before."

"Just what we needed," Daniel said, smiling gratefully at his friend before he placed his arm around her once more…

* * *

  
As they reappeared outside Hogwarts, a quick glance back at the ship confirmed what Sam had just said; more powerful spells were obviously making the ship shake as they struck the shields, and the return fire seemed to be slightly weaker, but there were no guarantees that the wizards wouldn't get tired first.

"OK, what just happened?" Mitchel asked, looking over at his teammates.

"We shut down the naquadria core," Sam clarified. "The ship's still got its original power supply to draw on, but that's not going to hold out as long as the naquadria would have; if we can hit it hard enough, it should go down soon."

"I believe I have something that will provide the required firepower," Teal'c said.

As Daniel looked over at his friend, Teal'c removed a staff cannon from a bag that Hermione had been carrying- he must have packed that at some point when they weren't looking- aimed it at the ha'tak, and fired the cannon at the heart of the ship. The cannon wasn't powerful enough to completely penetrate the ship's shielding, but it was still sufficient to knock the ship off-balance, as well as weakening the ship's shield even further. As the wizards' spells continued to strike shields that were never designed to take this kind of attack, regardless of their power, a second blast from the cannon dealt even more damage to the shield, with a third blast deactivating the shield long enough for some of the more powerful spells to penetrate the barrier and strike the ship's hull, sending chunks of it falling from the ship to hit the ground around them. As the shield continued to fluctuate, Teal'c aimed the staff cannon and fired once again, this new shot striking the ship in its centre, bypassing the flickering shields and penetrating the hull, evidently striking something important based on the subsequent explosion.

"SHIELDS!" Daniel, Sam and Hermione yelled simultaneously, the witches and wizards gathered around them raising shield charms as quickly as they could. As small explosions began to erupt around the ship, Death Eaters and Jaffa began to appear around the ground, clearly apparating to safety from the exploding ship, culminating in Voldemort appearing in the centre of the gathering as the ship finally exploded. The assembled shield charms were powerful enough to deflect the worst of the blast, and the ship's reactor was secure enough to prevent the naquadria or naquadah being destroyed in the blast, but there was only so much that they could do to deflect the worst of the explosion before the fires reached a level where the wizards could use charms to put out the worst of the fires.

As the last of the fires died down, Daniel's eyes narrowed as he glared at the sight of Voldemort standing in front of his small army of assembled Death Eaters and Jaffa warriors, dressed in elaborate black-and-gold robes that reminded him of some of Ba'al's less ostentatious outfits.

It had taken far too long for them to reach this point, but they were _finally_ ready for the final fight…

"Take whoever you want," Daniel said, as he looked over at his friends. "Just remember; Voldemort is _mine_."

After exchanging a brief nod of understanding, the rest of SG-1 and the assembled wizarding allies charged towards the Death Eater and Jaffa forces, leaving Daniel to draw his wand and hurry towards Voldemort, the two men coming to a halt as they finally stood in front of each other.

"So," Voldemort said, looking mockingly at his opponent, "it has come to this…"

"I guess so," Daniel replied, looking firmly back at Voldemort, the battle now being waged around them irrelevant and unimportant as he glared at his enemy.

Voldemort had ruined so many lives over the years… killed so many people… cheated death in ways that made the Goa'uld look like saints…

He'd believed that he'd eliminated Voldemort once and failed; it was time to correct that mistake…

"Ironic, is it not?" Voldemort said, still smiling as he looked at Daniel. "We have fought against each other for so many years… and yet, I find that we have so much more in common than even I could have imagined."

"We have things in common?" Daniel repeated, looking incredulously at Voldemort; if this twisted monster thought that he could make Daniel sympathise with him, he'd have another thing coming, but it might be interesting to see how he came to that conclusion. "What could we possibly have in common?"

"Aside from our wands, our particular origins, our more individual talents, and our original similarity… have we not both moved on from the wizarding world to assume new names in a larger scheme?" Voldemort asked, indicating them both with that same infuriating smirk. "You have always mocked me for rejecting my past, but what have you done if it is not a rejection-?"

"I moved on," Daniel said, glaring firmly at his parents' murderer.

"'Moved on'?" Voldemort repeated, smirking as he stared at him, wand already raising in preparation for what was about to happen. "After all your talk of 'love', you _moved on_?"

"No," Daniel replied, still glaring resolutely at Voldemort. "That's one of the things you'll never understand, _Tom_ ; just because something hurts doesn't mean that you avoid it. I'll always remember what you took from me, and there isn't a day that goes by when I don't wish that I could do something to bring them back… but I'll also never stop cherishing every moment I ever spent with them, and trying to live a life that they'd be equally proud of."

"Excuses!" Voldemort said, laughing mockingly at Daniel. "You simply cannot accept the fact that we have so much in common; you would rather live in denial-"

"I would rather live _away_ from all the crap you did to my life," Daniel corrected grimly, tightening his grip on his wand. "You made it impossible for me to have a normal life something as Harry Potter, so I moved on and tried to make a new life as someone else, away from what you did to me; you refused to accept that you could never be what you aspired to be even after the world made it clear that it didn't want you, no matter how many people you won over."

"I have become _more_ -!" Voldemort began.

"You've just moved on to a different scale; what you're doing is still the same as it was back when I was at Hogwarts," Daniel corrected. "You don't even bother to think about what you're doing any more; at least you showed some subtlety as Tom Riddle, but nowadays all you do is dive in and stir up a panic. You aren't even trying to be subtle when you take action; your mad search for immortality just left you a complete mess-"

"Mess?" Voldemort repeated, staring incredulously at Daniel. "I have gone further than any wizard-!"

"Would _want_ to," Daniel corrected, staring pityingly at his enemy. "Look at yourself; you've hi-jacked a parasite and now you think you're a god when you're just going back to doing what you did before. You could have been incredible, but all you are is a Goa'uld with some interesting new tricks and a focus on the planet that's thwarted bigger than you could ever be…"

Roaring in rage, Voldemort thrust one hand forward, but Daniel only needed to see the hand device to realise what was about to happen, quickly casting a shield charm that deflected Voldemort's attempt at a forceful shove off to one side. As another Death Eater was sent staggering long enough for another fighter to take him down, Daniel leapt back to launch a rapid series of spells at the Goa'uld wizard. Voldemort deflected most of them, but the strategy was enough for Daniel to pull out his gun and launch a few quick rounds in Voldemort's direction; his personal shield protected him from the bullets, but Voldemort's attempt to counter the attack by raising the hand device was just what Daniel was hoping for. Wand held out in front of him, Daniel summoned the hand device off Voldemort's hand, the rings practically tearing through the skin on Voldemort's fingers in the device's efforts to get away from him, a mid-air _Reducto_ shattering the device before Voldemort could try and summon it back.

"You _dare_ -!" Voldemort yelled at Daniel, clutching his now-injured hand under his other arm as he glared at the archaeologist, firing a rapid series of spells that did little against Daniel's reflexes.

"You can't win, Tom," Daniel said, allowing some of Harry's old sarcasm to come out as he confronted the man who'd ruined his life so many times, ducking and weaving around Voldemort's retaliating spells as he cautiously advanced towards his foe; what he was about to do was risky, but he had to try it at least once. "It doesn't matter what you try… it doesn't matter how powerful you are… because guess what? You missed the memo."

As he finally came in close enough, Daniel lashed out and punched Voldemort in the twisted snake-like mess that passed for his nose, smiling as Voldemort reeled back in shock, staring at the blood on his hands from where the assault had damaged his nose; all the enhanced reflexes in the world couldn't help if you weren't prepared for someone to hit you with their fist rather than a wand.

"These days, I'm Doctor Daniel Jackson," Daniel said, smiling at his parents' killer, enjoying the chance to talk back for a moment; this might not be Daniel's usual style, but he found that he wanted to enjoy this new chance to lay some demons to rest. "Not only have I picked up some new tricks since we last fought, but somewhere along the line, I forgot how to die."

"Then allow me to _remind_ you!" Voldemort yelled, his voice in the familiar Goa'uld double-toned manner of speech as he lunged towards Daniel, the archaeologist only just managing to avoid the attack; as he'd noted earlier, Voldemort might have enhanced reflexes, but that didn't help if he had no clue what he was doing in a physical fight.

His initial point made, Daniel cast a quick Banishing Hex that threw Voldemort back a few feet before he managed to regain his balance, Daniel raising his wand to launch another spell as Voldmort fired a curse at him…

The spells collided…

Their wands linked…

There was a moment of nothing as they stared at each other, straining for control of their abruptly-formed connection…

Something struck the connecting line from off to the side…

There was an immense explosion of magical energy…


	54. The Final Chapter

For a moment, Daniel had no idea where he was. One minute he was fighting Voldemort outside Hogwarts, and then he was lying in a large white, open space, nobody in his immediate vicinity, a sudden pain in his chest from where he had been hit, no sign of anyone else around him…

 _What just happened_?

For a moment, he thought he saw something small and black streak past him, screaming in agony at something in a voice that sounded like a strange combination of a snake's hiss and a Goa'uld's dual tones, but then the moment passed and he was left lying on the ground, still lost for what had just happened to him.

"Harry," a voice said.

Sitting up at the sound of his old name, Daniel's eyes widened as he took in the source.

"Professor Dumbledore?" he said, looking at his former headmaster in surprise. His old mentor was dressed in his usual long robes, these ones a dark blue, with a solemn, satisfied expression on his face and both hands far healthier than they had been when Daniel last saw him.

"Indeed," Dumbledore said, smiling back at him with the same warm, familiar manner he'd always used when they met just after the latest crisis had been resolved, when they could afford to talk almost as friends rather than headmaster and student. "It is… good to see you, Harry."

"It's Daniel now," Daniel began, before he suddenly felt awkward about correcting Dumbledore; the man might have kept secrets that he shouldn't have, but he'd never dared to tell the guy he was _wrong_ before now. "Uh… sorry…"

"Quite all right, Daniel," Dumbledore said, smiling in understanding at the archaeologist. "You gave up a great deal over the course of your struggle with Voldemort, during and after your time at Hogwarts; it is only natural to want to start afresh after you have lost so much."

"Uh…" Daniel said, looking uncertainly at their surroundings, which seemed to be becoming more defined even if he still couldn't make them out; he could be at King's Cross or in the gateroom. "Where are we? And… am I… dead?"

"I assume you are asking that because you believe that I am?" Dumbledore said, still giving Daniel the same understanding smile. "A fair assumption, Daniel, but an incorrect one; what I am is… well, I believe you refer to what I am now as _Ascended_?"

"You… you _Ascended_?" Daniel repeated, looking at Dumbledore in shock; he didn't doubt that his headmaster could have achieved something like that, but it was still a shock to hear that his old life and his new one had come together in such an unexpected way. "But… but your body-!"

"A recreation I made in the seconds between when Severus killed me and when I would have hit the ground," Dumbledore explained with an indulgent smile. "A minor bit of interference in the grand scheme of things, particularly as it allowed knowledge of our kind to remain a secret; people would have been suspicious if only my clothes had landed with no sign of my body when you had heard Severus use the Killing Curse, after all."

"Right…" Daniel said, nodding at his former headmaster. "So… you Ascended?"

"I had spent the better part of the past year preparing for my death; add in my own efforts to avoid power, and what I had done to try and avoid killing except when necessary, and I was deemed… suitable… by a woman of your acquaintance," Dumbledore explained smiling at Daniel. "Her name was Oma Desala."

"Oma came to you?" Daniel said surprise. "You didn't seek to Ascend on purpose?"

"It is like any true position of power, Daniel; you are most worthy of it when you do not know what you seek," Dumbledore explained. "I was prepared to die, but when Oma came to me and offered me greater knowledge without the temptation of corruption- albeit because I would be unable to do anything with it- I felt that it was an offer I could not pass up."

"You didn't want to risk being tempted?" Daniel repeated. He recalled some rumours he'd heard about Rita Skeeter doing an autobiography of Dumbledore shortly after his death that hinted at Dumbledore's shady past, but he'd never gotten around to reading it and Hermione had the book removed from publication shortly after she started in the Ministry on the grounds that it was nothing but slander; he'd dismissed it as Rita making mountains out of molehills, but if Dumbledore was implying that there was something to it…

"In my past, I had… proven that I was not to be trusted with greater power," Dumbledore explained, an embarrassed aspect to his manner as he made that confession before he continued. "Ascension might offer greater power, but with the other Ascended to ensure that I would not use it, I was safe to focus on the acquisition of knowledge above all else. I deeply regret that I was unable to offer any further information to help you in your struggle against Voldemort, but you performed most admirably, and while I regret what you lost in the process, I am proud to see how far you have come on your own merits."

"Uh… thanks," Daniel said, lost for anything else to say to that.

It might be over two decades since he had last attended Hogwarts, but Dumbledore would always be the wise and powerful wizard who had done so much against Voldemort, even if Harry hadn't always agreed with his actions at the time; hearing his approval might not be something Daniel Jackson needed, but it was something that Harry Potter would always value…

"Well…" he said, taking a moment to think over what he could say next before he decided to focus on the most obvious question in front of him. "What happened to bring me here?"

"A fascinating convergence of events," Dumbledore said, smiling at him. "Are you aware that you yourself were a horcrux?"

" _What_?" Daniel said, eyes widening in shock at this news. "But… but _how_ …?"

"It was the source of the connection that existed between you and Voldemort all those years ago," Dumbledore explained. "When Voldemort's curse rebounded on you back in Godric's Hollow, his already-fractured soul broke into further pieces, with one fragment latching on to the only other living object in the house at that time; you yourself."

"And… you _knew_?" Daniel said, staring at him in shock.

"As I said, I suspected it for a long time- how else to explain your access to Voldemort's mind and your shared ability to speak Parseltongue?- but I was reluctant to voice it," Dumbledore explained. "If the opportunity had arisen, I would have shared this information with you when the time was right-"

" _When the time was right_?" Daniel repeated, glaring in outrage at this news, his initial gratitude at the chance to see Dumbledore again forgotten in the face of his outrage at this omission. "Voldemort _survived_ because of _me_ -!"

"He survived because of you _and_ the true seventh horcrux that he had created from the canopic jar containing a frozen Goa'uld symbiote; your own role was minor," Dumbledore corrected, his gaze becoming firmer as he looked at Daniel. "His followers went underground after his defeat and would not have been discovered even if he had died for good, and even without your horcrux, the one in the jar would have been sufficient to keep him tethered to our plane until he merged with it."

"OK, so I'm not uniquely responsible; what does that have to do with… with what just happened here?" Daniel asked, trying to focus back on the issue at hand.

"When you cast your last spell in your latest duel, the collision of your spell with Voldemort's triggered a significant… backlash," Dumbledore explained, evidently lost for words for an apt description. "The power of the spells involved, combined with your wands' ties to each other, triggered a significant explosion of magical energy; it would have been relatively contained, but it would still have been highly dangerous to anything in the blast radius."

"Ah," Daniel said, wondering if he should be reassured at how little Dumbledore had actually changed- a few of the terms weren't what he would have used back at Hogwarts, but the essential details were still the same- before he turned matters back to the most important question facing him right now. "So… am I dead?"

"After all the times that you have died over the years since I knew you?" Dumbledore asked, smiling slightly at Daniel's question. "No, my boy, you are not dead; the backlash would have been considerable, but it was closer to your adversary than it was to you, so he took the brunt of the blast."

"But… but the horcrux-?" Daniel began.

"You have died many times since I was your teacher, Harry; after all those times, I think we can safely assume that the horcrux that was within you has died by now," Dumbledore said, smiling reassuringly at him. "If nothing else, the horcrux would never have survived your own ascension; the purity of the process would have destroyed the darkness of the horcrux within you."

"That doesn't answer the question," Daniel said, looking at his former headmaster with a slightly amused yet frustrated grin. "If I'm not dead… how did I survive something that killed Voldemort?"

"You were far enough away from the blast radius to escape the more fatal consequences of the explosion," Dumbledore explained. "Combined with everything you have been exposed to and undergone over the years, your natural reaction to magic is… slightly unconventional."

"Unconventional?" Daniel repeated.

"Oh, direct spells will affect you normally, but if you are exposed to a magical blast such as the type that you just encountered- on the peripheral of the assault rather than a direct target, you know- or if you are simply a victim of a general magical assault that has not been specifically directed against you, your natural quantum state is just enough out of sync with that of the usual person that you will not react to it in the regular way," Dumbledore explained. "It's a subtle change, so deep in your system that even your new friends lack the ability to actually see it unless they somehow knew what to look for, but it was enough to protect you from this."

The explanation sounded plausible enough, Daniel supposed- as plausible as anything could be when considering that he was talking about magic and his body's natural quantum state with a man who should have died over two decades ago- but then Daniel noticed the twinkle in his old mentor's eye, with the kind of smile that reminded him of when Jack was being unusually tactful- or when General Hammond was doing it, as was more common- and taking care to say exactly what people wanted to hear in a situation where it was vital that people leave with a certain perspective on the situation…

Was it possible that Dumbledore was stretching the truth? That the blast he'd just been exposed to would have actually just knocked him out and Dumbledore was just using the opportunity to talk to him… or that the blast could have killed him and Dumbledore was using the loophole explanation of else had happened to him over the years to explain how he'd survived.

It was slightly unnerving to consider how close he might have just come to actually dying, but if it gave him the chance to have this last conversation…

"So… did you just come here to tell me that?" Daniel asked, deciding to leave that issue alone; regardless of which explanation was correct, it wasn't going to change anything about his current circumstances…

"Not just that," Dumbledore said, smiling at him. "When this opportunity arose… and thanks to a few strings being pulled and favours called in among those who know more than I do… there was someone else of our mutual acquaintance who wished to talk to you."

For a moment, Daniel was about to ask who, but then he felt something grab him in an enthusiastic hug and an achingly familiar scent hit his nostrils, prompting him to step back as he stared in shock at the girl before him, Dumbledore already vanishing from Daniel's peripheral vision to go to some other location.

He hadn't seen her for years, but her face remained vivid in his memory…

"Ginny?" Daniel said, feeling more like Harry Potter than he had for years. "But… how?"

"From what Professor Dumbledore told me, the line between where he is and where I am… well, it's thinner than the line between where I am and where you are; we had a chat, but I was able to win the right to talk to you right now," Ginny Weasley explained, smiling warmly at him for a moment before she assumed a more serious expression. "I've been watching you, Harry."

"Ah," Daniel said grimly, suddenly embarrassed at what the girl might have seen him do (He was _not_ going to consider what else Ginny had said; even if he believed that knowledge should be shared, there were some things nobody should find out before their time). "That's… well-"

"It's all right, Harry," Ginny said, reaching out to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder, the gesture still comforting despite the fact that it was from someone who seemed at least two decades younger than him. "I've seen what you've been through since I died, along with what you've done, and… well, I wouldn't want you to just keep missing me, no matter how morbidly romantic it might be."

"Yeah… I get that," Daniel said, smiling gratefully at her before he sighed awkwardly. "It's just… I never meant to move on the first time, and now…"

"You can try," Ginny said, smiling reassuringly at him. "We had our chance, Harry, and it didn't happen; a couple of bad experiences shouldn't stop you from trying again."

"Maybe…" Daniel said

"Hey, even Sha're agrees with me," Ginny added.

"Sha're?" Daniel repeated, staring at Ginny in shock. "She-"

"She's a lovely woman, Harry," Ginny said, smiling at him in a reassuring manner. "Trust me, we've talked it all out; there are a _few_ details we'll need to work out when you get here, but if you can't work out problems here, where can you solve them?"

"Oh," Daniel said, once again resisting the temptation to ask for more information before he focused on the real issue. "Well, whatever else happens, I'm… I'd like to take this one slower than the last two."

"Considering that you've known each other for years as friends…" Ginny began, before she sighed and shook her head in amusement. "Still, whatever makes you happy, Harry."

"It's… more comfortable this way," Daniel corrected. "I just… well, she and Jack…"

"Had their moment," Ginny said firmly. "You've got a chance to be happy now, Harry; if Jack's your friend, regardless of how awkward it'll be at first, he'll accept that."

"Well… there's also what the last few weeks have revealed to her," Daniel pointed out; he wasn't ready to start thinking about how _Jack_ would react to all this, even if it was ultimately Sam's choice who she ended up with. "Like you said, I've been friends with her for years, but that was when she just knew me as the archaeologist; she might know more about me now, but it's going to be difficult to… adapt to this shift in our relationship even if I do nothing else…"

"Fair point; learning that magic's real at this age _would_ be a bit of a shock for any muggle…" Ginny said, smiling in new understanding at him before she shrugged. "Still, your call in the end."

"I thought-" Daniel began, noting Ginny's brief frown.

"I can be jealous, you know; I'm in Heaven, I'm not a saint," Ginny pointed out, before she smiled. "Anyway, since it's about time for you to be getting back, I just… well, just give me one thing…"

Daniel didn't even have time to ask what she was talking about before he found a beautiful redhead in his arms once more, their lips locked in a kiss that was just as Daniel remembered from those long-ago days at the end of his sixth year, when there was still hope that everything would work out and he'd come home to start the life and family he'd never been able to have growing up…

"Just wanted to give you something else to remember me by," Ginny explained as she stepped back, still grinning at him in that manner she always used when she was teasing him to improve his mood.

"Right…" Daniel said, smiling back at her before he looked over at Dumbledore, who had apparently reappeared while he was distracted and was now looking solemnly at Daniel. "So… it's over?"

"Oh yes," Dumbledore said, smiling reassuringly at him as Ginny vanished back to wherever she had appeared from. "You have destroyed all of Voldemort's horcruxes, and the backlash of his last spell will have eliminated him quite thoroughly; he is no longer a threat, I assure you."

"Good," Daniel said, suddenly remembering the strange thing he thought he'd seen when he was just waking up in this place; if Dumbledore was to be believed, that _could_ have been Voldemort…

"There are still the Ori for you to contend with, of course," Dumbledore said, smiling apologetically at his old student, "but you are already aware of your next step on that particular path; all that I can do at this time is wish you luck."

"Thanks," Daniel said, lost for anything else to say as he began to feel something from what he could only describe as 'outside' starting to pull him away from his current location. "So… was this real, or is it all just… in my head?"

"Of course it is happening in your head, Harry," Dumbledore replied with a warm smile as the world began to fade around him. "Why should that mean that it is not real?"

Daniel couldn't deny that; his encounter with RepliCarter had mostly taken place inside his head, but that didn't mean that it hadn't been real…


	55. Moving On

As he felt himself leave wherever he'd been and return to his body, Daniel winced at the renewed sensation of pain throughout; he'd never returned directly to a damaged body after spending time without one.

Still, the fact that he felt pain at least confirmed that he was alive; he might not have directly experienced the afterlife before, but he was fairly sure he hadn't done enough over the years to merit going _straight_ to the bad place when he finally died for good (Even if he'd probably need to answer for some of things he'd done at some point…). Slowly sitting up, Daniel winched slightly as he took in the sight of the body lying where Voldemort had been standing earlier; judging by the burn marks around the body, along with the sparkling magical residue around the more exposed injuries.

" _Daniel_!" " _Harry_!" at least two different voices yelled before Daniel felt someone land on the ground beside him. Looking in the direction of the sound, he saw Hermione and Sam crouching on either side of him, his closest female friends looking anxiously at him as he blinked his eyes open.

"Are you all right?" Hermione asked. "The backlash of that blast-"

"Was nothing," Daniel said, smiling weakly at his friends as he sat up, trying to sound more confident than he felt; he wasn't ready to talk about his vision just yet, even if he ever would be. "I've taken worse…"

His voice trailed off as he realised that there was a sudden increase in silence despite the battle that should have still been raging around them. Looking up, he took in the sight of his assorted friends, both past and present, gathered around the outskirts of Hogwarts and the shattered remnants of Voldemort's ship, staring in surprise as their Death Eater adversaries all fell to the ground, clutching their arms in obvious agony before they all went silent, lying still on the ground.

"What happened to them?" Fred asked, looking incredulously at the fallen Death Eaters as SG-1 and SG-M gathered around Daniel. "I mean, they all just… keeled over when Voldemort went down…"

"Goa'uld ego combined with dark magic," Daniel said grimly, as he got back to his feet and looked at the nearest fallen Death Eater, his eyes focusing on a burn on the sleeve around their left arms. "The Dark Marks already gave Voldemort a strong connection to his Death Eaters; I wouldn't be surprised if he deliberately tied the Dark Mark in with his own life essence when he brought them back together this time around."

"You mean… he deliberately tied the Death Eaters to him via that… tattoo… so that if he died, they'd _all_ die?" Sam said, looking at Daniel incredulously.

"I am sure that there are many Goa'uld who would seek to ensure such a thing if they knew how to achieve it," Teal'c said grimly.

"It's not that much of a stretch, either," George noted. "I mean, if Hermione can do an enchantment that causes someone to break out into boils if they break their word when all they've done is sign a parchment, Voldy could easily take it to the next level and do something that would make these sods die if he snuffed it."

Daniel allowed himself a slight grin at George's nickname for Voldemort; after so many years feeling like he was the only one who was willing to use Voldemort's name, it was refreshing to hear other people doing it.

"Well, at least we don't have to worry about trials now," Hemione said, smiling slightly as she studied the fallen Death Eaters. "I was _not_ looking forward to having to find incorruptible jurors for that one…"

"Quite," Tonks said grimly, the solemn expression on the face of the usually smiling woman reinforcing just how dire things had been back then better than almost anything else could have.

"So… it's over?" Mitchell asked, looking at the fallen Death Eaters with a slight smile. "Always nice when the bad guy ends up destroying themselves."

"Quite," Lupin said, smiling slightly at the thought before he looked back at the assembled wizards. "So… what do we do now?"

"Right now?" Hermione said, shaking her head as she smiled over at Daniel. "Right now, I need to come up with a statement I can make to the press that announces the resurrection and certain defeat of Voldemort without bringing up the return of Harry Potter into the bargain, and then… well, we'll take it from there."

"Sounds good," Daniel said, nodding at Hermione in approval, grateful for her recognising his wishes before he even needed to ask.

He might have returned to the wizarding world for the duration of this crisis, but he'd made a life for himself as Daniel Jackson that he wasn't yet ready to give up; disclosing Harry Potter's return might make it easier to accept Voldemort's return and downfall, but if it was possible to tell the story without that element coming in, he had faith that Hermione would find a way.

Once that was dealt with, _then_ he could talk with his old friend about taking their new working relationship further than these last few missions…

* * *

  
A couple of days later, Daniel sat in his hotel room in London, studying the treaty-related paperwork that he'd been sent to finalise before bringing it to the Ministry, contemplating everything that had happened over the last few weeks.

With the defeat of Voldemort and the simultaneous death of most of his Death Eaters, the British wizarding world had lost a substantial portion of the more prominent pure-blood families, leaving Hermione in the awkward position of promoting various half-blood and muggle-born wizards who could fill their seats, essentially turning the wizarding world on its head like she'd been trying to do since becoming Minister. The SGC had managed to salvage the majority of the components from Voldemort's ship before Hermione or McGonagall had to alert the wider Ministry to the Death Eaters' attack, allowing them to come up with a plausible cover story. As far as the wider wizarding population was concerned, Voldemort had returned thanks to a previously-unknown horcrux and managed to mount a new attack, only to be destroyed when various American allies had come to assist in the defence of Hogwarts (It had been impossible to deny Voldemort's return after so many people had seen him, but they had been able to conceal the existence of the Goa'uld from those who couldn't know, and Hermione had assured everyone that there was no way for Voldemort to have an additional horcrux without fracturing his soul to the point where he would be unable to even think clearly).

While the SGC worked on using the salvaged components in their next major ship-building project- the ha'tak was too damaged to be rebuilt, but enough components had survived for them to be used in construction for other projects- Daniel had taken it upon himself to make plans with Hermione to continue the SGC's working arrangement with the Ministry of Magic beyond the current crisis with Voldemort. Hermione was naturally interested in donating the resources of the magical world to assist in exploring the galaxy in general and dealing with the Ori in particular, and Lupin, Tonks and the twins had expressed an interest in continuing to work with the SGC, even if Fred and George noted that their own business would have to come first if they had to make a choice. They were having to open negotiations with the American Ministry as well, but since most countries had their own wizard governments to limit the risk of them being discovered by muggles unintentionally intercepting their messages, negotiations were still being conducted with both groups independently. It would take a while before all the kinks were ironed out, but plans were already being made to assign at least two wizard teams to the SGC and to Atlantis itself, along with a few wizards being deployed to various offworld bases to test how magic would respond to various conditions and vice-versa.

The manner in which they came together might have been dark, but Daniel had to admit that he was grateful to see how easily his friends as Harry had accepted his life as Daniel, as well as the other way around, both on the small and larger scale. The IOA were interested in additional magical resources being provided now that they were aware of the wizarding world, but Hermione and Daniel had made it clear that the Statute of Secrecy would still be the primary guideline for further interaction between them; only those who needed to know about the presence of wizards in the SGC would be aware of the nature of their new members.

On a personal note, Daniel and the rest of SG-1 were enjoying the chance to talk with his old friends now that they didn't have to worry about the next crisis. While Daniel sometimes felt embarrassed when his friends from Hogwarts brought up some of the things he'd done back then, in general he enjoyed the chance to hear more details about how life had been for everyone since he'd left the wizarding world, and he was already making arrangements to visit the Weasleys on his next leave from the SGC. Even outside their friendship with Harry/Daniel, the two groups were forming their own bonds; Teal'c and the twins had actually started an unusual but interesting friendship, the Jaffa intrigued at the possibilities offered by their joke shop, and Daniel wasn't the only one who'd noticed that Hermione was spending a lot of time discussing the possibilities of further collaborative efforts with Mitchell in particular (Neither of them were apparently willing to say anything definite, until the treaty was finalised, and the rest were respecting their privacy, but there was definitely something there).

Personally, Daniel thought that each of them would be good for each other; Mitchell had a similarly jocular manner to Ron, while possessing a professional approach that Ron had never quite mastered, who wasn't particularly intimidated by Hermione's reputation among the wizarding world and position in the British government, while Hermione gave Mitchell a fascinating partner who would always be able to surprise him.

If only he could find the opportunity…

The sound of a knock on the door distracted Daniel from his thoughts. As he got up and opened the door, Daniel was apprehensively surprised to find Sam standing on the other side; he'd been trying to focus on his work to _escape_ this kind of conversation…

"Hi, Daniel," Sam said, smiling awkwardly as she stood in the door. "Can… can I come in?"

"Sure," Daniel said, stepping aside to let his friend into the room. "I was just, uh, going over some of the finer points of our new deal with the Ministry…"

"Yeah, I heard," Sam said, smiling back at him. "Everything's in order, right?"

"Yeah, it all seems straightforward enough," Daniel said, nodding at her. "Various sub-clauses about the SGC not asking for magical assistance in doing anything unless they're certain we have to be able to do it to save lives, the Ministry not requesting magical technology or trying to release it to the public without our approval…"

"In other words, each side is making sure the other can't take advantage of them," Sam said, sighing slightly as she looked over at his desk.

"It's just in case anything comes up in the future," Daniel said reassuringly. "I trust Hermione and General Landry, but I think we can both agree that the last thing we want is to give the likes of General Bauer or Minister Fudge full access to what their counterparts would be capable if things go wrong at either end."

Sam simply nodded in silent acknowledgement of Daniel's point as she looked around the room, before she finally came to her decision.

"OK, this is direct, and I know that there's no simple answer, but I have to ask; are you all right?" the astrophysicist asked, looking uncertainly at the archaeologist/wizard. "I mean, you've been through a lot in the last few weeks, what with everything you've been forced to dig up in order to help us when you probably never wanted to go back in the first place, and that's before you think about who you were dealing with…"

"And I've put my issues with that part of my life to rest, along with a great deal of other things," Daniel replied, smiling reassuringly at Sam. "It was hard seeing Voldemort and Snape again, but I was able to see them defeated again as well, and I've even managed to reconnect with some old friends; it might not have been my choice, but I wouldn't run away again now that I'm back."

"That's…" Sam said, before she simply smiled at him, clearly regarding that as the best way to express herself without saying something might be taken the wrong way.

"It doesn't change anything, you know," the archaeologist said.

"What?" Sam asked.

"Just because I'm glad to be back in touch doesn't mean I'm going to _go_ back," Daniel clarified. "I'll always miss that life, don't get me wrong, but I'm comfortable with who I am as Daniel Jackson now. Being Harry Potter was fun, but Harry had his time; Daniel's who I am now, and even if he's now inherited Harry's friends, he's all I need or want to be."

It was a weird way of phrasing how he felt, but judging by the smile on Sam's face, she understood what he was trying to say and agreed with the sentiment.

"Well," Sam said, smiling at him in understanding, "for what it's worth, I have a feeling I would have liked either of you, whenever I met you."

"Thanks," Daniel said, smiling back at her before another thought came to him.

He hadn't felt inclined to discuss what he'd experienced in the moments after he'd been caught in the backlash of the last spell he had exchanged with Voldemort, but the memory of what he'd experienced during that last conversation with Ginny was still clear in his mind… specifically, her encouragement to at least try and move on.

He wasn't sure where this was going to go, and it could turn out that it would never amount to anything, but if he didn't take a chance, he'd never know, and he _had_ just been thinking that he needed an opportunity…

"If there's anything else you want to ask about Harry Potter…" Daniel said, looking at Sam in silence for a moment, his long-honed linguistic skills suddenly inadequate for the task at hand, before he finally finished it. "Maybe we could… grab a drink and talk about?"

"A drink?" Sam repeated, clearly sensing from his tone that he was talking about something more than their standard night out as friends…

"If you don't-" Daniel began, after the silence became awkward.

"No," Sam said, smiling at him in hesitant understanding, the smile becoming broader as she looked at him. "I… I'd love to."

As Daniel smiled back at Sam, each of them fully aware of what he had meant by asking his question and curious about where things would go, Daniel was struck by how uncertain he was about what was about to happen.

Even with Voldemort gone, the Ori were still going to be a significant problem, and then there was everything they still had to follow up regarding their discoveries in Merlin's library…

But he knew one thing for certain; whatever changes he was about to experience in his life, he would make them with the comfort and friendship of friends from his past as Harry Potter, as well as those he'd made as Daniel Jackson… and, just maybe, he and Sam were going to have the chance to take the first few tentative steps to become something more than they had been.

Maybe all he'd needed to remind himself to take a chance for the future… was to remember the odds he'd overcome in the past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus concludes this storyline, which I hope has met with the approval of you who have stuck with Harry/Daniel to the end.
> 
> Before anyone asks, I'm not sure if I'll write a sequel; this storyline was fun, and I have a couple of ideas about where I might take this series in future stories, but I don't have anything definite in mind long-term and I have other projects that I'd like to work on more. If inspiration strikes and I feel inclined to do so, I might try and write more in this series looking at what happened to the Stargate Program with wizarding back-up, but as it stands, that's not going to be in the foreseeable future (Although if anyone wants to have a shot at writing a sequel themselves, feel free; just let me know and include a reference to this story before you post anything)


End file.
